


Meanwhile, Elsewhere

by ClothesBeam



Series: Ham-fisted Dystopia AU [1]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Face-Sitting, Ham-fisted Dystopia AU, Multi, Prostitution, Spark Sexual Interfacing, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, fictional religion written by an atheist, that should probs be an archive warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-06-09 10:39:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6902488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClothesBeam/pseuds/ClothesBeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trailbreaker's force field powers might allow him certain privileges above his class, but that doesn’t mean he can make a big deal of them. He's just grateful he's one of the very few who have access to as much energon as he wants. But thanks to the isolation, it's basically all he does these days.</p><p>That, and do his darndest to ignore the buymechs that frequent the street near where he lives, anyway. Unfortunately, they're not quite ignoring him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> What is this, some kind of ham-fisted pre-war dystopian AU??

The steady routine had been a comfort, at first. The long days of hard labour to complete tasks too unsafe for mechs without his special ability were actually challenging and fulfilling. And while he had to be secretive about the existence of his powers, the perk was that he was one of the few who was allowed to consume as much average grade fuel as he liked. The downside, of course, was the isolation.

Generally he made his way back to the labour class’ living quarters with his head down. It seemed the only people he saw on a regular basis were the pair of buymechs that hung around on the street that crossed his. But even that was usually just a humiliating and unwanted solicitation that he spent the walk home dreading. And then once he was safely inside his living space, he’d basically drink himself into a stupor.

And on his day off? Well, who said he had to stop consuming in his circumstances?

Today had been just like the thousands that had come before it. He’d spent most of it testing the stability of dangerous mining tunnels, and now he was walking home tired and absolutely filthy. The familiar dread began to rise as he got closer and closer to his street. Some days he was lucky and got home before either of them showed up. The mech with largely white plating tended to leave him alone, and usually deterred his friend from saying anything when they were both there. No, the inappropriate comments came when the red mech was alone.

Trailbreaker steeled himself as he rounded the corner. All he had to do was cross the street and he’d be home. His apprehension settled a little when he saw both of them were there today, but this could still go either way.

It was difficult to not look up at them as he passed, what with the way everything from their polish to the curve of their plating was designed to draw the optic, but Trailbreaker kept his head down and his optics on his feet. He picked up his pace a little, hoping the less he was around them, the less likely they’d say anything to him.

And that was why it wasn’t until there were already hands latching onto his arms that he even noticed they’d moved. Trailbreaker’s visor brightened as he tried to see who had a hold of him and what their intentions were, but all he could gather was that he was being dragged away out of sight of the main road.

The thought to yell out crossed his mind as he heard the engines of a group in their alt-modes rumble by, but he soon thought better of it when he landed on his aft and his head was slammed against the wall. A gun pressed to the underside of his jaw made him freeze up.

 _‘Don’t panic don’t panic don’t panic!’_ he thought wildly as he tried to resist the urge to protect himself with his powers. They couldn’t find out, no matter what. He didn’t want to know what the state would do to him if he let anyone know about what he could do. He was an anomaly, a freak, and something that by all rights shouldn’t exist in this world.

He was still trying to figure out how two tiny speedsters had managed to jump him at all when they both came into his line of sight view, now standing over him and not looking too happy. The red one followed the sound of the group of cars moving down the main street with his optics, even though he couldn’t see through walls (as far as Trailbreaker knew), while the other continued staring him down. Once the sound had faded, he turned his attention to him as well.

“Care to explain this?” he snapped, making a vague gesture as if at the fading sound.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Trailbreaker more asked than stated as he strained to take a closer look at the gun poking into him. Was it even loaded with anything? Mechs of their frame types didn’t have access to much legal work at the moment, so he doubted they had enough money or energon to afford anything off the black market.

“The cops, genius. Why did you call the cops to this area? What did we ever do to you?”

Now that Trailbreaker thought about it, that gun was the sort that could be loaded with the same grades of energon they used for sustenance, for an extremely limited number of shots. All of the luminescent lines on it were completely dark. He glanced up again when the mech holding the weapon started talking.

“Well, _you_ verbally harass him all the time. What did _I_ ever do to you?”

The red guy made an almost amusing sound of annoyance before kicking his friend in the leg.

“Hey, Percy just cleaned that up!” he complained.

Trailbreaker glanced away in exasperation and pushed the almost certainly not loaded weapon away. Both of them reacted immediately, the white mech’s other hand flying at his neck cables, and the other slamming his pede down on the force field generator in his palm.

Trailbreaker bit his lip and offlined his optics in an attempt to keep his reaction under control. “Get off, get off! That hurts! And I didn’t call them,” he added as the weight eased slightly. “If I was going to, don’t you think I would have years ago?”

“Well, he’s got a point there,” the mech kneeling in front of him said, looking up at his companion now.

“Then why are there so many Enforcers hanging around here all of a sudden? It’s so bad we can’t even get back to the sector we actually live in. Their timing was _too_ good.” He finally let up completely on Trailbreaker’s hand, who quickly snatched it back against his chest. “What is that, some weird growth? You should get that checked out, I know a guy who’ll do it cheap.”

Before he could mutter something passive aggressive, the other one released him and spoke. “Don’t try anything funny. This,” he waved the pistol around before subspacing it, “might be flat, but we’ve got a guy watching from afar.”

“He can see us?” Trailbreaker asked sceptically, pointedly glancing at the walls surrounding them.

“Only one way to find out, isn’t there?” he replied darkly.

Trailbreaker leaned away from him slightly, not sure which of them was worse. He would just like to go home and forget about violent buymechs now, thank you very much…

“Stop tormenting him, Drift,” the standing mech said, seeming to have already forgotten that he’d been the one doing the tormenting a moment ago.

“I told you not to call me that in front of strangers,” he replied sharply, looking disgruntled.

“Whatever,” he replied, waving his hand carelessly. He turned his attention back to Trailbreaker. “So you going to help us hide or not? You have to live around here somewhere.”

“You have got to be kidding,” Trailbreaker said, folding his arms and glaring up at him now. “Why in the pit would I put myself in danger like that? What if they find you in my house?”

“Oh come on, I’m sure we’ll think of a way to make it worth your while,” he replied, letting his fingers rest on Trailbreaker’s jaw, then slide down to grab his chin.

For what felt like the third time in as many minutes, Trailbreaker had to hold back his self-defence mechanism. He stood quickly and pushed them out of the way. This time, they moved aside. “This has nothing to do with me. Just leave me alone!” He began walking out of the alleyway and in the direction of home.

To his surprise, they did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I tried to avoid the exposition, but the exposition won.

“ _Fuzz clear, forward,”_ Perceptor said over the comms.

Rodimus rolled his optics. He could never remember the current code words for things, but it wasn’t that hard to decipher with context. He crouched behind Drift, who peeked around the corner to confirm the police had left the immediate area for himself.

It was a few hours after midnight, and Rodimus was plain done with everything. They hadn’t found any work, what with the police scaring away any potential clientele, and forcing them to hide as they patrolled every now and then. On top of that, they hadn’t been able to move to another sector to try their luck thanks to the stupid blockades that had been set up. Thankfully it seemed they were moving their blockade to the next sector over now, but that didn’t help the fact it had been more than a day since he’d fuelled.

Drift grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, seeming to have agreed with Perceptor’s assessment. Drift didn’t seem to be affected by their circumstances at all, and Rodimus realised that was probably because he’d gone through far worse. He’d been on the streets for much longer, while Rodimus had only been dropped from his last job a few years ago.

 _“Meet four two,”_ Perceptor said once they were clear into their home sector. He remembered that part well enough, since all it meant was meet at home in twenty minutes. Rodimus wanted to hurry things along by transforming and speeding to the little run down lab they were calling a part time home at the moment, but unfortunately that would just waste a lot of fuel he didn’t have.

Drift glanced back at him and squeezed his hand tight in an attempt to pull him out of his thoughts. “Almost there now,” he said quietly.

“Yeah,” Rodimus replied tiredly. He didn’t have much energy left, and wasn’t looking forward to trying to rest on an empty tank. Running on empty only made work more difficult as well.

“We’ll see if the local worship place has any fuel to give away tomorrow. But if we can’t find any clients tomorrow, I’ll have to steal something decent from somewhere.”

“It’s only been just over a day,” Rodimus replied, part of him not wanting to go quite that far if he could avoid it. “Something will turn up.”

“And if it doesn’t, I’ll make sure we get something anyway,” Drift replied as he released Rodimus’ hand and lifted the cover of their entrance to an underground tunnel. He gestured for Rodimus to go on ahead and took care of closing it behind them while Rodimus looked for the door mechanism.

He bent over to let the screen scan him, and was glad when it opened this time. Perceptor’s friend Wheeljack seemed enthusiastic about the security technology, but it wasn’t that difficult to change what your frame looked like to meet the entrance requirements. So… some of his inventions were more brilliant than others. He'd made Drift’s rather unique sidearm, after all.

Wheeljack’s alt mode didn’t suit his job at all, so Rodimus understood why he was out here without an official job. But he still wasn’t entirely sure why Perceptor was out of a job. All he knew was he was glad he’d run into the group when he had, since Perceptor had helped them change their frames and official designations. Drift had killed people and was hiding from the police under the guise of ‘Deadlock’, while Rodimus had been glad to separate his current life from his old one. According to official records, he’d committed suicide, so the police weren’t looking for Hot Rod, at least.

Perceptor was already there when they entered the lab. Rodimus glanced at the door that led to the next room while Perceptor looked them over. Welding light flashed under the door occasionally. “You’re both all right?”

“Yeah, just hungry,” Drift said so that Rodimus wouldn’t have to.

“Unfortunately I can’t do much to help with that, at present. Wheeljack assures me his latest idea will help us use energon more efficiently, but I’m not waiting on that one too eagerly. This is safe enough to consume, though I’m not sure how far it will go between you,” he said as he bent over and removed a cube from one of the devices.

Rodimus glanced at the quarter cube of dim, watered down low grade glumly. It was far better than nothing, but it wasn’t exactly a meal.

“Thanks, Percy,” Drift said, taking it nonetheless. He nodded at them and retreated to the other side of the lab.

“I’ll leave you to it, then. Rest well,” he said before moving into the room that was separate from the rest of the lab.

Rodimus and Drift moved to the slab that was kept for them on the floor, in a relatively safe corner of the lab. Drift handed him the cube. “This should keep you going until morning. Hopefully Wing will have something better.”

“Aren’t you going to have some? It’s really your friends that I’m calling in favours from.”

“I’ll be fine,” Drift assured. “Drink.”

He’d protest more if his tanks weren’t being so convincing. Rodimus turned away and finished it quickly, feeling bad for fuelling in front of him. They both moved to lay against each other when he was done. It had been enough to take the ache away, at least.

“Thanks,” he mumbled as he wrapped an arm around Drift.

“No problem,” he murmured, and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “Rest well.”

* * *

 

Trailbreaker came out of recharge reluctantly as his internal alarm continued to go off. Only two more days of work, and he could have his day off. Not that he was entirely sure what he was going to do with it, at this point. Probably recover from another hangover, at this rate.

Trailbreaker slowly rolled off his berth and cleaned himself up as best he could without having to bother getting into the wash rack properly. He didn’t have time for that, and there wasn’t much point when he was going to be back down the mines again so soon. Besides, he had enough of a headache without a stream of water beating against his helm.

Closing the front door of his living space behind him, Trailbreaker made sure it locked before walking quickly down the road in the darkness of early dawn. Even though he was running a bit late now, he’d never transform and drive through the middle of the residential sector this early in the morning.

However, even after transforming at the main road, he only managed to get one sector over before he was stopped at a police blockade. Thankfully it was early in the morning, since his current workplace was so far away, so the line for inspection wasn’t too long. But he was definitely going to be late at this rate. The mech in front of him sighed with annoyance and folded his arms, tapping his foot none too subtly.

“D’you know what’s going on here?” he asked, turning sideways so he could glance at both Trailbreaker and the guy standing in front of them.

Trailbreaker shrugged, not really feeling up for complex conversation. The mech in front took the focus off him anyway, when he replied. “Seems they’re trying to crack down on troublemakers and illegal workers,” he said, glancing over at Trailbreaker almost accusingly.

While he was a big mech and could fit in with other labourers on the surface, he wasn’t exactly a mining vehicle. But he knew he’d just get waved on through as soon as they scanned his ID. _Classified_ , it would say, and they’d ask no further questions.

As he waited, his mind began to wander. Had the two buymechs from yesterday gotten caught up in all of this? It would surely spell the end of their freedom if they had. Maybe he should have helped them after all. He’d been stressed at the time, but now he understood what they were so worried about. He could have done more, but at the same time, they could have done a lot _less_.

What if they _did_ show up again, but then attacked him for not helping them?

Before he could worry himself too much, he was called over to a free checking station. The officer who saw Trailbreaker looked bored as he scanned his alt mode. “Do you have ID?” he asked as soon as the scan finished, not bothering to look down at it since it was obvious that there was a discrepancy between that and his job.

Trailbreaker removed it from his subspace and presented it to a smaller scanning device. The Enforcer nodded as he lifted the scanner. “Your workplace has already been informed that this inspection may make you run late. Please move on in an orderly fashion.”

Trailbreaker nodded, almost glad he had a good reason to be late, now. “Ok, see ya.”

He was also glad to have an excuse to walk most of the rest of the way. It wasn’t the worst hangover he’d ever given himself on a work day, but his engine only made his head feel worse. Even still he wondered what coming home would be like this time.

* * *

 

Drift sat on his knees near the front of the house of worship. Unfortunately his tank was still mostly empty, but he’d managed to scrounge something to tide them over for a bit longer.

Rodimus was sitting opposite him, their hands entwined, fingers occasionally fumbling against his as they tried to communicate silently via their hands. They could just comm each other, but apparently the state knew how to crack personal signals and listen in, now.

‘ _Why… stare… us?’_ Rodimus asked. His vocabulary was getting much better, but his grammar was still terrible.

Drift onlined his optics and glanced up to see Star Saber devoutly polishing the few symbolic artefacts the worn down place still had at the front of the room. Since he obviously wasn’t referring to him, Drift looked over his shoulder to find Wing standing vigil near the entrance. He stood in a strong, upright stance with his feet separated and Great Sword held in his hands, pointing downward in front of him. Drift privately thought the way he had to hold it up and prevent the pointed end from scraping the ground was ridiculous, but to them it was just extended training or something.

With the way he was positioned in the entrance alcove, he wasn’t blocking the doorway, but he stood to the side so he could see both into the main room and outside. Anyone was allowed in here, as long as they behaved themselves. Wing’s position allowed him to fix them with a stare, even if he couldn’t move from his spot and abandon his duty to actually say what was on his mind.

Wing probably knew what had happened yesterday down to the wind direction, thanks to Percy. And if he was trying to make them feel guilty about accosting an innocent person, it was working. As it turned out, the Enforcer patrol had all been a coincidence. Apparently the state wanted to crack down on riff raff, but Primus forbid they go work in a mine or somewhere more hands were needed. Literally, apparently.

‘ _He’s trying to get us to go talk to him.’_ He slowed down when he saw Rodimus struggling to keep track of his movements. ‘ _Guilt us,’_ he added simply.

‘ _Safe leave now?’_

Drift nodded and they let go of each other before standing up. They may as well get this over with now. “What?” he asked once they were in Wing’s audial range properly.

“I heard you had a close call yesterday,” he replied calmly, ignoring any hostility that may have been in Drift’s tone. “I do hope you and everyone involved is all right.”

“Yeah, fine, didn’t hear about anyone getting caught,” he grumbled in response, knowing all too well where this was heading, and where he’d be heading as soon as their conversation was over. “But it doesn’t seem to be over yet.”

“Well, once it’s safe, perhaps you should _both_ go and apologise to a certain unwitting bystander? Though I heard the patrols have cycled to the next sector over, so…”

“We were just going there.”

Wing raised a brow and in a tone that was not at all accusatory said, “Really?”

Drift folded his arms. “ _Yes.”_

“Ah, I see. I won’t keep you any longer then,” Wing replied softly, giving off one of his brilliant smiles.

Drift cycled his optics, surprised that Rodimus had managed to stay silent through all of that. As they exited onto the street, he turned to see he was giving him a scrap-eating grin.

“He was telling you off as well!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pronoun situation becomes less confusing as all the main characters finally learn each other's names.

Rodimus didn’t miss the way the off-roader’s entire frame seemed to drop when he turned the corner and saw them waiting in the same spot as always. He felt a little guilty, but raised his hand to wave. “Hey! Wait up!”

The large mech tried to ignore him and picked up his pace a bit, but Rodimus continued walking alongside him with Drift, assuming that falling behind him and following him would only make him more nervous.

“No, seriously. We want to apologise to you for yesterday. A few conclusions may have been jumped to a little hastily…” Rodimus paused to glance left and right before hurrying across the road after him. The large mech seemed to hesitate a little before turning sharply and entering one of the front doors lined along the walkway.

Rodimus jammed his arm and foot in the door before it could close in their faces. The mech paused and turned just beyond the doorway. He folded his arms. “Get out of my house.”

“I just want to tell you that I’m sorry. We both are,” he said, glancing in Drift’s direction. “Let’s talk about this, huh?”

Whatever meanness he’d mustered to snap at them a moment ago seemed to vanish with a sigh. “Well, if you’re not going to leave, you might as well come inside before anyone sees you.”

Rodimus shoved the sliding door back open and stepped inside hastily. Drift spoke up as he followed. “I know we’re not exactly polite company, but really?”

The labourer glanced away and moved over to the table. He grabbed a rag and started to dust off some unused chairs. “I didn’t mean it like that, just… It’s easier to keep a secret when you don’t associate with anyone. And I’m probably being watched by someone to make sure it stays a secret.”

Working out the secret was now, of course, Rodimus’ number one goal. “So anyway, we never did introduce ourselves to each other. You can call me Rodimus,” he said, extending a hand.

He noticed that the larger mech took it with his fingers and thumb only, as though hiding the weird dome on his palm from him. Given what he’d done to his hand yesterday, he couldn’t say he blamed him, but it felt like a clue.

“Trailbreaker.”

Drift seemed to hesitate a moment before copying the gesture and actually giving his real name for once.

“Look, I’ve had a long day.” The amount of dirt smeared across his plating made that self-evident. “I really just want to fuel, clean up, and recharge.”

“Don’t let us interfere with your routine. Thanks to the little, er, hiccup yesterday, we need to get to work ourselves soon. But, do you know anything about what the Enforcers _are_ doing?”

“Not really,” Trailbreaker replied, gesturing for them to sit in the chairs he’d just cleaned. “But, well, just wait here for a minute.”

Rodimus and Drift glanced at each other as he left the room. Drift took hold of his hand under the table and signed in shorthand, ‘ _Seems lonely. Overworked.’_

At least, he thought that was what the second part was supposed to mean. Rodimus nodded in agreement anyway, since the part he did understand was obviously true. Maybe it was because Trailbreaker could do weird stuff, like Blurr? But the racer hardly kept that a secret…

Trailbreaker returned with three cubes of energon, and Rodimus was legitimately surprised when two of them were pushed their way. “I’m not trying to bully you out of your fuel,” he said weakly.

“I’m not going to sit here and fuel in front of two mechs who look like they haven’t done so in a week,” Trailbreaker grumbled as he removed the top of his own and took a big gulp.

“We can’t accept this. Unless… you want to trade for it?” Even though he’d just said this, Drift seemed perfectly willing to accept it and had already quietly subspaced his.

“No, don’t worry about it,” Trailbreaker replied quietly. He looked almost embarrassed by the suggestion, but to Rodimus it was just business. “I have enough to go around, for now.”

Rodimus could see Drift was calculating something, but he wasn’t entirely sure if either he or Trailbreaker were ready to hear what he had to say, so he changed the topic of the conversation again. “So, what were you saying before?”

Rodimus took the top off his cube while he waited for Trailbreaker to answer. He stared down in disbelief, wondering if his olfactory sensors were deceiving him. Was he seriously giving them whole cubes of mid-grade?

“Well, you probably already know, but on my way to work I saw an Enforcer blockade in the next district over. On my way back, just now, I saw they’d moved out another sector. I don’t really know what they’re trying to achieve other than scaring everyone, but they seem to be systematically moving to the outskirts of the city.”

Rodimus took a sip from his cube before pushing it over to Drift. He knew he was saving his one for ammunition and to repay their debt to Perceptor. It wasn’t like the scientist kept a ledger, but everyone he helped made sure he had enough fuel to both keep ticking over and to keep a good stock of materials.

Rodimus took the cube when Drift pushed it back toward him, significantly emptier than it had been before. Rodimus finished it off before finally nodding slowly and replying, “That matches what we heard.”

“Are you sure there isn’t anything we can do for you?” Drift asked suddenly. “I rarely have the spare fuel just lying around, but I don’t just carry the gun around for decoration.”

Trailbreaker took their empty cubes and used cleaning up as an excuse to move away from them again. “No, of course I don’t need anything like… Look, it’s better if things go back to how they were.”

When Trailbreaker turned his back and moved around the corner again, Rodimus noticed one of the seams running down his back was jammed full of dirt and stones. Interrupting his line of thought, Drift leaned close and murmured, “Why isn’t there anything he wants? If we could do work to the equivalent of eight cubes a week we wouldn’t have to worry about all the client finding scrap.”

Drift leaned back again when they heard footsteps returning. Rodimus could see his point, but Trailbreaker clearly didn’t need anything they could provide, and trying to con him would be like kicking a turbopup. When he came back into the main room he stood there awkwardly, hand gripping the back of the chair closest to him.

There had to be something he could do to put his own conscience at ease, at least. “Hey, it’s probably hard to reach that spot on your back, right?” he interjected before Trailbreaker could ask them to leave.

Trailbreaker looked surprised by the turn in conversation before twisting to try and look at what he was referring to. “Huh?”

“Hey, I wouldn’t feel right not trying to do _something_ for you. At least let me help you out with that. It doesn’t look all that comfortable.”

“Well, I- I never really noticed,” he replied, scratching his fingers across his helm.

Rodimus turned his back to him as he stood, and took the brief moment of privacy to give Drift a significant look. He didn’t want him to steal anything, but he also knew Drift would at least have a stickybeak anyway.

Trailbreaker glanced at Drift for a moment before shrugging. “Fine, do whatever you want.”

Rodimus followed him through the small berthroom and into the wash rack. It seemed he knew what Drift would get up to as well as Rodimus.

“So, you work in the mines, huh? You don’t seem to have come equipped with the necessary tools, though.” Rodimus closed the door to the wash rack to prevent the water from spraying into the other room.

Trailbreaker looked mildly irritated by the questions. “Mine? What’s a mine?”

“Oh _ha ha_ ,” Rodimus muttered as he took half a step back to avoid the growing puddle of mucky water. “I heard it’s where energon, and apparently dirt, comes from.”

“Yeah, well, you can ask the person who assigned me about all that. I just do what I’m told so I can keep my house and fuel.” Trailbreaker removed the shower head from the wall and sprayed it over his limbs and back. As expected, water pressure wasn’t nearly enough to dislodge what he couldn’t see. “If I don’t even have that, well, I won’t be of any use to anyone then, will I?”

Rodimus chose to ignore what might have been a mild stab at them. “Ok fine, so I can’t get you to tell me what your power is. But there are others like you, y’know? Yeah, I’m sure Percy has a friend of a friend of a friend you can ask about it all.” Rodimus glanced around the stall and picked up a ratty old brush, the bristles of which might be able to dislodge the dirt.

“What do you mean by powers?”

“Well, you know, moving really fast, learning really fast…” Rodimus glanced up with the brush in hand and got the distinct feeling he’d lost Trailbreaker’s interest again.

“Those are just augmentations. And let me guess, they’re also alt-mode congruent?”

“Well um…” He wasn’t entirely sure. Blurr was, obviously, but he hadn’t met the others in person before. “Not necessarily?”

Trailbreaker tilted his head and rested a hand on the back of his neck. “Anyway, am I clean yet?”

Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything new to Trailbreaker, Rodimus accepted the change in topic. “Not even close, just let me…” he murmured, gently moving the brush along his seams. “Can you sit down? It’ll work out better if I start from the top.”

Trailbreaker complied and hummed relaxedly as he continued scrubbing and picking at one of the larger rocks. But Rodimus soon found he’d have to scrub a lot harder to remove the rest. “Um, this doesn’t seem to be working as well as I’d hoped.”

“You can scrub harder than that, it’s fine.”

“Well, I might scratch your coating and…”

Trailbreaker glanced back at him before bringing his hand up to cover his guffawing. When Rodimus folded his arms he dropped his hand and calmed down a little. Trailbreaker opened his mouth as though to explain, but then quickly devolved into snickering again.

Rodimus realised this was the first time he’d seen Trailbreaker _not_ miserable. A smile looked good on him.

“Strangely, that's not much of a concern for me.”

* * *

 

Drift stepped lightly, glad the sound of falling water would cover any noise he made. He had to find out what the energon situation was here. Thanks to yesterday’s issue and today’s apology, he’d gone hungry for more than a day and a half, and he didn’t want that to happen to either him or Rodimus again any time soon. They had to go back to planning more carefully, and not let their supplies dwindle right down again.

Though Rodimus’ optimism was pleasantly contagious, he didn’t seem to fully understand that there wouldn’t always be a way out for them, or a friend to offer them a hand up. It was just a fact of life that sometimes bad things happened to the best of mechs. A fact Drift knew all too well. They had to take precautions, and keep those they currently called friends happy. And if living properly for a little while meant taking advantage of spineless people like Trailbreaker, then so be it.

He moved carefully around the corner Trailbreaker had kept disappearing around earlier, and spotted an energon preparation and storage area. It looked like Trailbreaker got the stuff delivered through a matter transporter in exchange for recycled cubes or something. A clever way to keep track of what he was using, as well as tempt him to maintain or even increase the amount he consumed.

Drift knelt in front of the little cupboards and opened the doors. One of them was cold while the other was warm, and both of them were full of at least 30 cubes each. He took two off the back corner of the bottom shelf of each, assuming it would take Trailbreaker a long time to notice they were missing. He stowed them safely in his subspace with the other one. At least _that_ hadn’t been allegedly hacked yet.

Other than the energon preparation area, Drift found the rest of the living space was largely plain and empty. A quick rustle through the berth covers showed that he wasn’t hiding cash anywhere, and Drift realised Trailbreaker was probably being paid in fuel and accommodation alone. Even by the state’s standards for labourers, that was cheap. Probably the thing that kept him here was his terror of being rejected from society.

Unfortunately, they had already taken that victory by completely separating him from everyone.

Drift hastily tried to put the covers back the way he found them when he heard the water shut off. They were either going to have to leave quickly, or have a very drawn out conversation.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The author begins to think the chapter summaries should be more plot-based and less meta. Unfortunately the porn in this chapter doesn't leave much room for plot.

Trailbreaker was still mystified by how many rocks had managed to get stuck in his back seams and _not_ interfere with his transformation. But, a strain he’d barely noticed before now seemed to have lifted. He felt a little more relaxed, but his tanks were still about two cubes short of being replenished.

He and Rodimus exited the wash rack once they were relatively dry, and he glanced around to find Drift leaning against the doorway between his room and the living area. He glanced up at him before quickly averting his gaze back to Rodimus, as though checking him over.

“I suppose you want us to leave you in peace now?”

Trailbreaker glanced away. It was kind of nice not having to be alone for a change, but the mechs before him still made him feel a little uneasy. They had been a source of anxiety for him for quite some time.

“I do have to get to work on time tomorrow,” he eventually agreed.

Rodimus turned toward him, looking disappointed. “That’s too bad. I was thinking Drift probably just swiped energon to the equivalent of our going rate for both of us overloading you into recharge.”

Trailcutter felt his face warm at the blunt sexual talk, but it still reminded him of what they used to be to each other a bit too vividly. “As long as you’ve left me enough to fuel up properly, I can forgive you. And uh, if you give the cubes back when you’re done.”

“Well, thanks for everything and sorry again. I guess we’ll see you around soon,” Drift replied, apparently able to get behind this suggestion. Trailbreaker nodded goodbye as they headed to the exit.

When they were gone, he felt like he was finally able to relax properly. He made his way over to the energon warmer and was somewhat surprised to see just about everything was accounted for. Maybe he’d be seeing them again sooner than he thought.

Trailbreaker grabbed two cubes and relaxed into his usual seat, hunching over the table and gulping down the fuel unreservedly. Still, he felt good about having been able to help them.

* * *

 

Rodimus was surprised to see Wheeljack and Perceptor leaving the lab at this hour. They’d encountered each other at the street corner just outside of their little underground hidey-hole. “What’s going on?” Rodimus asked.

“You remember the medic I sent you to in order to ensure the frame alterations were synching correctly, yes?” Not bothering to wait for an answer, Perceptor continued rattling on as usual. “A friend of Ratchet’s is badly hurt and he needs our support to keep things running for a few days. If you’ve managed to find any fuel of a decent grade, I would very much appreciate it at present.”

Drift nodded hurriedly before removing two cubes from his subspace. “Luckily, we can actually repay that debt now.”

Perceptor’s optics brightened with surprise but he smiled gently and took the offering. “Perfect. Unfortunately even our privileged friend has trouble getting his hands on enough of this stuff to make effective IV lines, but this should help his friend greatly.”

Wheeljack nodded his agreement. “Looks like the place is all yours for a while. Make sure no one steals the defibrillator this time, I’ll need it for an experiment later.”

“Um, yeah, sure…” Rodimus muttered, and they all parted with another nod. “I didn’t know we even had a defibrillator,” he muttered to Drift once they were safely underground. The faint glow of energon components was all that lit up the room.

“It’s probably locked away safely anyway,” Drift said from close behind him. Rodimus straightened when he felt his hands run over his hips. Right, private time was even more valuable than energon at the moment. “No need to worry.”

Rodimus turned in his arms so they were facing each other and stepped in even closer. “Better take advantage of the peace and quiet while we can, then.” It was nice to be able to do this without feeling like they had to perform for someone else. He held Drift’s face in his hands and placed gentle kisses against his lips.

Drift murmured his agreement and pushed him back up against the workbench, gripping his hips tight and kissing back with far more insistence. Rodimus shifted slightly so that their interfacing panels would rub together, and was mildly surprised by the amount of heat emanating from him already.

“A bit eager, aren’t you?” he teased gently once Drift had moved on to using his mouth to play with his neck cabling. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to stay near the half-finished chemistry experiments,” he added with a worried glance back at the table.

Drift nodded and backed off a little. He gripped Rodimus’ hands firmly and pulled him over to the slab in the corner. Rodimus let him pull him down on top of him, and was happy to be pulled into another passionate kiss. “Touch me,” Drift murmured and pushed his hips upward.

“Gladly,” Rodimus replied, and kissed a trail over his chest plate and down the more flexible components of his abdomen. Drift gasped softly and shifted his hand to stroke the back of Rodimus’ head. He continued teasing around his partner’s hip components as he rubbed his fingers against the shuddering, yet still closed panels.

“Oh Roddy,” Drift murmured, and wasn’t able to continue containing himself for long. “When was the last time we had a chance to do this properly?” His question ended with a gasp when Rodimus’ fingers moved over the strip between the base of his spike and the top of his valve entrance.

“I don’t know, but we have plenty of time, so just relax,” Rodimus replied gently as his fingers moved down to, and then inside, the valve entrance.

“Well, it could be a while before we get this chance again. I… I want to show you…” Rodimus glanced up to find Drift looking away, uncharacteristically nervous and hesitant. The way his hands hovered over his chest plating gave his intentions away, however.

His own spark responded, tingling and moving faster in his chest. He’d never expected things to get this serious between them, but he was infinitely glad they had. Rodimus sat up and rested his fingers that weren’t covered in lube against Drift’s lower chest. “Show me.”

Rodimus’ venting stuttered at the erotic shift of plating beneath his fingers, and the bright light of a spark flickered at him. He felt the heat rise in his face as the full implication of this gesture hit him. This was the ultimate show of trust between two mechs. And Drift did not trust lightly. It was a declaration of love, just not in so many words.

Rodimus let his own chest plating break apart, and the tendrils of his spark reached for Drift’s automatically. Drift’s legs wrapped around his waist, encouraging him to slide forward. Rodimus gladly did so, sliding his spike inside him and then leaning forward to let their sparks line up as best he could.

They moved against each other, at first gentle and lovingly, but then more vigorously as lust overtook their movements. “I need you,” Drift gasped as he clung to Rodimus and rolled them over, rutting against both his spike and spark.

Rodimus moaned and felt pleasure gather in his chassis. Their torsos rubbed together as they swapped charge. Drift keened as he approached overload, his valve clenching around Rodimus.

Rodimus cried out, a high pitched noise that he’d never been able to fake, and grabbed Drift’s hips so he could continue slamming into him. Their sparks flared and Drift clutched at him as though they’d been welded together. There was certainly enough heat emanating from the both of them to bring the possibility to mind.

He felt himself succumb to an overload at last, their sparks also giving one last pulse before retreating back behind their chest armour. They remained a tangle of limbs for several minutes as their fans whirred and their venting cycles slowly evened out again.

Eventually Drift slowly extricated himself, but remained close as he laid down next to Rodimus again. Rodimus ran a thumb along part of Drift’s helm that ran parallel to his cheek structure and placed a chaste kiss on his lips, for reassurance more than anything.

“That was nice,” Drift murmured. “I haven’t done anything like that for a really long time.”

The name ‘Gasket’ cropped up in the back of Rodimus’ mind, but if Drift didn’t want to talk about that now, he wouldn’t go there. “Same,” he said simply, even though ‘I’ve never touched someone else’s spark’ would’ve been more accurate. “I suppose we should see if there’s anything left to clean up with.”

Drift sighed as though that was the last thing he wanted to do right now, but their private time could be more limited than they thought if something were to go wrong...


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Trailbreaker has started making friends he can’t seem to stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took ages because I changed my mind about what was going to happen next about three times, and then I didn’t have time to write what I finally decided on because of work. But hoorah, it continues.

Trailbreaker followed his supervisor along another set of underground tunnels. This would be his last task for today, and then tomorrow he could finally have his day off.

“We’re afraid one of the miners have wandered down here by accident, but the fissures are too unstable for us to send a team to take a look. We’ll need you to see if you can retrieve him, since you can protect yourself from a cave in should worse come to worst,” the foreman explained.

They passed through a narrow tunnel, which slowly graduated into a cavernous room. “What’s his name?” Trailbreaker asked, thinking it might be useful to be able to call it out while looking.

“He’s an old geezer called Terminus. He’s probably gone senile and wandered off,” the foreman explained quickly.

Trailbreaker frowned. Surely someone that old was more than experienced with safety when it came to travelling underground, no matter the state of his brain module? But he’d learnt to not ask too many questions early on. “Oh.”

There was a shuffling noise on the other side of the room, and Trailbreaker looked up to see a large mech hauling a drilling piece move over to the fissure in question. “Terminus, where are you going?” he asked, reaching his free hand into the crack as though trying to physically retrieve his friend, who had apparently shuffled into it.

“Get away from there Megatron, or you might get involved in a cave in,” the foreman snapped, and the larger miner glanced back as though he hadn’t seen them earlier. “We’ll get our retrieval specialist to take care of it.” He backed off obediently, but fixed them both with a hard stare.

Trailbreaker made his way over and shuffled inside. It wasn’t like this was the first time he’d done this, though usually he retrieved equipment, not people. There was no risk of anyone seeing him ‘do his thing’ that way.

“Terminus?” he called as he managed to squeeze through the fissure. He had to duck due to the low, roughly hewn ceiling. Trailbreaker only had time to take in the elderly mech glancing up at him worriedly, and the small pile of obviously illegally stashed energon cubes, before there was a screech of the drill bit pounding against the wall behind them.

Trailbreaker saw the ceiling begin to fall and panicked. He ran forward and projected a shield over them, but unfortunately he wasn’t quite fast enough to save the elderly mech’s legs. The weight above them knocked him onto his aft. He curled his legs up and braced his elbows on his knees. He already knew he could hold this position for a long time, thanks to all the other cave ins he’d been dug out of.

Terminus struggled to subspace the cubes while crying out, “Ah, my legs! My legs!”

“No, Terminus! What have I done?” Megatron lamented from behind them, and Trailbreaker began to suspect neither of them were being entirely legitimate. After all, if the foreman had caught them hoarding energon, they’d have a lot more to worry about than their legs. And since the workers’ subspaces were checked regularly, they couldn’t exactly carry it with them everywhere.

Footsteps indicated someone was circling the fissure they’d wedged themselves into, and a moment later the drilling started up again in earnest to Trailbreaker’s left. Rocks still shifted, but this pathway seemed to be a lot more stable. He glanced up when the noise died down, and he heard Megatron sigh with relief.

“Thank goodness you had a _porta-shield_ ,” he said, with a bit too much significance. Trailbreaker suspected that if he tried to dob them in, Megatron would make another ‘slip up’ with his drill piece. “Those are expensive; they don’t get issued often these days.”

“I _am_ the cave in specialist. Of course I’m prepared,” he replied. It was in his own best interest to play along, anyway. He’d get reamed for letting anyone see his powers in action, no matter the circumstances. He wasn’t supposed to exist.

The foreman sighed from over near the original fissure. “All right Trailbreaker, you can go off shift as soon as you dig yourself out and clean up this mess. I have other things to take care of.”

Trailbreaker waited until he was well out of earshot before grumbling to himself. “Why did you have to freak out like that? I wasn’t going to say anything,” he complained.

Megatron tapped the rock around him, trying to identify the best way to free them. “We couldn’t take the risk. We can’t exactly save energon by starving ourselves in this job, so we’re somewhat, ah, opportunistic,” he replied conversationally.

“You could’ve said something before so I wouldn’t have to go through this,” Terminus grumbled, but otherwise seemed fine. He must be able to change the extent of his neural network at will, Trailbreaker realised.

“With an ability like that, I can see there’s no way you’re a functionist,” Megatron added. “And yes, things could have gone better, old friend. We’re probably going to have to spend that stash on a skilled medic and start over.” He disappeared for a while as he cautiously dug through the rock behind Terminus so he could free his legs and let him crawl across the diameter of the shielded dome.

Trailbreaker shuffled along next to the struggling mech, letting the rocks fall and finish caving in as they edged along to safety. Once back out in the open, he let his shield down and flopped to the ground, exhausted. “Um, I might be able to get a friend of a friend to help you out. He does frame mods and stuff, and might know someone with more expertise.”

Megatron raised a brow, and Terminus looked unimpressed, considering his position on the floor. “Why would you want to help us?”

Trailbreaker felt like he finally had an answer to this. “Because I have the capacity to do so.” He glanced down at the domes on his palms. “And you don’t think I’m weird,” he said more quietly.

Terminus gave a wheezing laugh. “Wouldn’t go that far!”

Megatron shook his head at him briefly before giving a proper response. “I feel the only people who would are functionists, that is, those who determine what your alt-mode means, and where you fall on the hierarchy,” he explained when Trailbreaker’s shaky grasp on the word seemed to make itself known.

“You’re well-educated for a labourer.”

“You’re quite alive for an anomaly,” he retorted. “I’ll get one of our labourer friends to transport Terminus to a doctor. Apparently there’s a decent mech with a part time practice in the Dead End. Perhaps he can get extended care with one of your friends later.”

Trailbreaker nodded. “All right. Good luck. This is my communications signal if you’re not too paranoid to use it...”

* * *

 

“And so, what with the mining accident and the issue with Ratchet’s friend, we’re going to need a lot more resources. High-grade energon at that, for the miner. Do you know anyone with access to anything like that? Even Ratchet is having trouble commissioning it because he’s treating ‘disposable’ labourers,” Perceptor explained over the communicator, his face on one of the lab screens.

“I understand,” Drift said, glancing up at Rodimus, who was sitting on the other side of the lab, on top of their slab. He knew what he was going to say next, and wasn’t happy about it. “There’s only one guy I know with access to stuff like that, and it’s not going to come cheap.”

Perceptor glanced to the side, hesitant about asking so much of him. “Please, if there’s anything you can do… Ratchet is one of the best, but they’re probably going to die if we can’t get anything of a higher grade. They’re too weak to process the usual muck.”

“I’ll have a chat with him. I’ll let you know if we come to an agreement.”

Perceptor nodded. “Thank you, Drift. We’ll do what we can to make it up to you when you get here.”

“See you later,” he murmured as he ended the call. While the signals Percy’s devices sent were encrypted, there was no guarantee that they couldn’t be hacked, so they tried to avoid relying on them too much.

“Drift, that better not mean what I think it means…” Rodimus murmured, folding his arms.

Drift made his way over so they could talk properly. “You heard what he said, lives are at stake.”

“ _Other_ lives will be at stake if you go do any work for that guy,” he replied stubbornly.

“He might own the organised crime ring around here, but he isn’t entirely unreasonable. I’ll make it clear I’m not going to do more than knock someone around a bit for him.” He stood and took stock of his weaponry automatically. “Or, maybe he’ll have something else altogether in mind.”

Before Rodimus could protest, Drift pulled out a cube of mid-grade and handed it to him. “This should last you at least a few days. Go suck up to Trailbreaker and tell him I’m sorry I can’t return the other cubes because Percy took them across the city. You’d be safer there than down here.”

Rodimus rested his free hand on his hip. “I can look after myself.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean things have to be unpleasant for you until we all get back. I’ll meet you at Trailbreaker’s place when we get back, all right?” He gently took hold of Rodimus’ upper arms.

He glanced away, finally relenting. “Just make sure you come back.”

“I’ll be back before you know it,” he assured, and was glad when Rodimus responded to his kiss.

They gently separated, and he made his way over to the entrance. He waved goodbye one last time before moving back above ground, and making off down the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should stop randomly importing characters from other continuities into these fics, but I do so want Thunderhoof to be the crime boss...


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodimus learns _a_ secret about Trailbreaker, and Drift is propositioned by a certain crime boss.

Trailbreaker hadn’t been expecting to see Rodimus sitting at his table when he got home. He made another mental note to change his lock, though he wasn’t sure it would help when Drift was almost certainly a criminal on the loose, and therefore would almost certainly be able to crack it again, even if Rodimus couldn’t.

“What’s up?” he asked as he slowly made his way forward, trying and most likely failing to look casual.

“Hey, um…” Rodimus began, looking at his hands, which were folded on the table in front of him. “We’ve got a bit of a crisis on our hands. When we got home we found out some friends of a friend are dying. We donated half the energon we got off you to help keep them going, but we found out this morning that things are only going to go south from there if we can’t get the doctor any high-grade to work with.”

That didn’t really explain why Rodimus was _here_ , since he’d never so much as tasted something that good, let alone have regular access to it. Trailbreaker approached the table and waited for him to continue.

“So uh, since Drift is out and about and doesn’t want me to risk hanging around on my own anywhere, can I stay here for a few days?” Rodimus asked, finally glancing up at him.

Trailbreaker suspected the little stint he’d pulled at work today wouldn’t be overlooked by the higher-ups, and was anxious about potential upcoming repercussions. But then again, he didn’t think agreeing to this would make him that much worse off, even if it was discovered. “Yeah, all right. It’s my day off tomorrow though, so you’ll have to put up with me all day.”

Rodimus smiled and sat back in the chair properly, tension seeming to have dropped from his shoulders. “I’m sure we’ll manage to entertain ourselves somehow.”

“That’s… not what I meant,” he grumbled, heat rising to his faceplate again.

“But why not? You’re a nice guy. Handsome, too. Staying here won’t be a chore,” he replied, tilting his head suggestively.

“You… you don’t have to act like that. I mean it when I say it’s fine if you need to stay here. This isn’t some debt that needs to be repaid.” He smiled shyly. “I’m way too lazy to keep track of that sort of thing, anyway.”

“I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, and I meant what I said.” Rodimus returned the smile more sincerely this time. “I’m sorry if I’m being too forward, but the more you ignore what I’m saying, the more I feel I have to try harder. I’m good at what I do.”

Trailbreaker fiddled with his fingers in his lap. “It might just be interface to you, but it’s not to me. I’ve never really had a chance to do it with someone else before, and I have some, um… issues…”

Rodimus looked shocked by this confession. “Seriously, never? Well, I guess it makes sense given your situation, and assuming you were born with your powers.” Trailbreaker sighed with exasperation. “But it’s hard for me to comprehend. I didn’t have a choice about doing this, but I don’t mind it. I finally have a job I’m good at,” he said ruefully. “But I know Drift hates it. If only he had an option that didn’t involve violence...”

Rodimus paused thoughtfully for a moment, before suddenly seeming to process the second thing Trailbreaker had said. “What kind of issues? Unless it’s something unique to whatever your anomaly is, I’ve probably seen it before, you know.”

“It’s embarrassing…” Trailcutter mumbled, quickly getting to his feet and moving to get them some fuel. But Rodimus foiled his escape by following him into his energon preparation area.

“It doesn’t have to be,” he replied, giving him room as he bent down to retrieve cubes from the warmer. Trailbreaker felt he needed something to calm his anxiety.

He turned back while still kneeling in front of the open door to hand Rodimus a cube. He reached for it and his jaw at the same time, lowering his gaze as he leaned forward. Rodimus pushed his mouth against his briefly, before parting again and letting their foreheads touch instead.

Trailbreaker flushed, momentarily forgetting what he’d been reaching into the warmer for. Rodimus shuffled his pede forward, letting his shin rest against Trailbreaker’s crotch. “What’s wrong? You have trouble getting hard or something?”

Trailbreaker flinched back and kept his optics on the ground. How had he guessed so easily?

“Assuming at least some of the sensors in your valve are receptive to touch, I’m sure I’ll manage to think of some other things for us to do,” Rodimus murmured gently, voice smooth, and words and tone chosen carefully. “Would you like that?”

Trailbreaker nodded hesitantly. He watched Rodimus pluck another cube from the warmer in front of him, then offer it to him. “But you look tired. Just fuel up and leave the rest to me,” he murmured, and Trailcutter opened the cube he suddenly found in his hands with an automatic motion.

When Rodimus got up to move, he went to close the door to the warmer and take a sip at the same time. He spluttered when Rodimus’ hand snaked around from behind and began massaging his panel with slow, firm motions. “A-aren’t you gonna fuel first?” Trailbreaker mumbled.

“I’d rather just skip straight to dessert.” Trailbreaker felt a gasp escape him as Rodimus pressed a long, strong stroke all the way up his valve seam. His panels popped without any conscious input. However, he immediately felt a flash of embarrassment when Rodimus’ hand ran over his spike, only partially showing, and only a little hard. He bit his lip when Rodimus focussed there for a while.

“Does that feel all right?” Trailbreaker grit his teeth, wondering how he was supposed to answer that. His spark stuttered when he felt Rodimus pause, his touch becoming lighter. “Trailbreaker?”

“It’s… it’s good, but, can you maybe touch my valve instead?”

He felt Rodimus move behind him slightly, but his hand shifted down to the group of sensors above his valve entrance. “Ok, I’ll focus elsewhere if it makes you more comfortable.”

Rodimus’ other hand drifted up Trailbreaker’s torso, the tips of his fingers just able to reach his windscreen. Trailbreaker looked down and watched narrow fingers slide toward his entrance. He was surprised by how easily they slid back up to his external sensors; he hadn’t realised he was that turned on already. He grasped the hand resting on his chest as he felt his running temperature increase.

“Should we, um, move to the berth?” He gasped softly as his movements became firmer. “It might be more comfortable…” But it was so difficult to not put up a force field when he overloaded. He was worried about how things might go.

Rodimus slowly moved his hand away from his interfacing array and rose. He smiled gently. “Sounds good to me.”

* * *

 

“I am entirely sure there should be another zero on the end of this,” Drift said quietly, flicking the plastic card he’d just scanned in the terrified mech’s face. “I came for 5000, not 500. Or do you need some help with the mathematics? Because we’re going to have to add interest on top of that, yet.”

“No, please! I don’t have it!” he whimpered from the floor.

Drift’s temper was short; he didn’t have time for this. He needed to get Thunderhoof his money so he’d give him the high-grade, and then he’d hopefully get to the clinic in time. “Is there something you’d rather give? An arm, a leg?” he asked, grabbing and twisting the mech’s wrist into an arm bar, and then stomping on his shoulder joint. It gave a satisfying creak.

He knew very well the smarmy mech did have what he wanted, and a lot more. He was one of the more successful black market traders. “Perhaps you should start borrowing from a more forgiving creditor?” Drift suggested blandly.

Instead of listening to whatever excuse he had to offer this time, Drift stiffened when he heard something move behind them. His finger was on the trigger of his suddenly drawn weapon before his potential attacker could step back into the shadows. He shot where he supposed the mech’s knee joints must be, and wasn’t surprised to hear a gun clatter away when the fighter fell forward.

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me the first five times? Where is the money?” he demanded, twisting the mech’s arm a little more with each syllable.

“All right, fine, take whatever you want!” he exclaimed voice now more high pitched. This time he was legitimately scared. He held out another card. A quick scan showed this one held 6200, the exact amount with interest included.

“Much better,” he said, letting up immediately. “If you’d just given that to me in the first place, this could have been a lot more pleasant,” he added, walking back toward the building’s exit. As he moved, he spotted the other mech reaching for his gun again, and quickly changed course to put a stop to that.

Unfortunately, he still seemed to be ready to fight back. When Drift kicked his weapon further away, he turned to hand-to-hand combat. But the mech’s attempt to drag him down into punching range failed, as Drift used his leverage to block his hand and hit him in the face instead. Drift kneeled over him and continued hitting as the mech refused to quit. But even when energon loss had made it difficult for the other fighter to move, Drift found it difficult to reign himself in and stop hitting.

Then again, this wasn’t the first time he’d ever shown up in Thunderhoof’s meeting room splattered in energon, whether it was his own or someone else’s. In fact, the crime boss didn’t so much as refocus an optic when he came shambling in. Drift slapped the card down on the desk and rested a hand on his hip, trying to look casual despite the fact he was in the biggest hurry of his life.

“You even got the interest as well? Impressive work, as always. Why don’t you just take it all with you, instead?”

Drift paused, clenching his denta together. At any other time, that would have been a ridiculously generous offer. But there wasn’t time for him to go scour the black market for high-grade himself. “Two cubes of high-grade was the agreement. I need it _now_.”

“I already told you, I don’t just keep that sort of thing lying around. Unless you want me to delve into my private stash? That’s going to cost you a lot more than a debt retrieval, no matter how big it is.” He sat back in the cushioned chair and steepled his hands. “Unless, of course, you’re saying you’ll work for me full time? You know I can look after your needs, and those of your pretty little red thing as well, if you want.”

While Drift wasn’t entirely surprised that he knew about Rodimus, it didn’t make him feel any better. He hoped he’d actually gone to stay with Trailbreaker for the time being. “That’s not the kind of decision I can make on my own, anymore,” he replied vaguely, dodging the suggestion.

“Why, he don’t like you hurting others?” Thunderhoof asked with a mocking tone. He simply chuckled at the flash of annoyance Drift let cross his face.

“No, he doesn’t. So, isn’t there anything else you want?” Of course there was. There always was. He’d let himself get caught up with this lot after Gasket’s death, and he still hadn’t managed to claw his way back out.

Thunderhoof pushed away from the desk, letting his chair roll back slightly as he beckoned Drift over. “I think you know the answer to that. But, as a show of my generosity, I’ll let you have the money and the high-grade. I provide well for reliable subordinates.”

Drift walked around the table and settled in the crime boss’s lap. “That _is_ very generous of you.” Though he knew it would only last as long as he managed to stay in Thunderhoof’s good graces. Realistically, he didn’t expect that to last much longer. Drift stroked down Thunderhoof’s chest and ran his fingers over his hip structure. Drift knew very well what he liked, by now.

“And I would continue to be, dear Deadlock,” he murmured, reaching straight for his inner thighs. The change in pace was a little sudden, but Thunderhoof was just as familiar with what he wanted. “I don’t just mean I would provide for the both of you as long as you work for me. If something were to happen to you – Primus forbid, but the work _is_ dangerous – I would continue to keep your widow fed and sheltered.”

The prospect of long term stability was almost enough to make him rethink everything on the spot. “Well, if I’m not around, who can really say that’s what would happen?” he murmured, reaching for his interface panel in an attempt to leave that conversation for today. Now really wasn’t the time, and he needed to get out of here with the high-grade in hand.

Thunderhoof shuddered and he let his spike and valve be exposed. “You don’t trust me?” he teased. Drift grabbed his spike in an attempt to shut him up. “In a hurry, are we?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” he replied.

Thunderhoof grinned down at him. “Well, we’d better make this quick then, hadn’t we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can probably tell, I didn't really feel like writing porn this week. If that doesn't change, the next chapter could take a while...


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The part I actually started writing this fic for 6 weeks ago finally begins to surface.

Rodimus could see Trailbreaker was still tense, even as he sat back on the berth. Much as he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t fall from his current level of arousal, he could see that going straight for his valve again might not be the best move. Instead he crawled on top of him and sat on his abdomen.

Rodimus rested one hand on his shoulder and the other on his cheek. He ran his thumb over Trailbreaker’s lower lip and his mouth parted slightly. Rodimus leaned forward, shifting his weight so their lips could meet again. When Trailbreaker didn’t really respond, he pulled back again slightly so their optics could meet.

“S-sorry, I don’t know what to…”

“You don’t have to apologise for something like that. But, I suppose we can just skip over that part for now.” Rodimus let their cheeks brush as he shifted his mouth over his neck cabling instead.

Trailbreaker gave a small gasp and let his shoulder drop so he could have better access. Trailbreaker’s hands slid over his back as he pulled him in closer. Now this was more like it, Rodimus thought.

Rodimus let his aft rise as he leaned down more, searching for what he liked best. He tried not to be so methodical about things when he was with a partner he was emotionally intimate with, but Trailbreaker was so new to him he didn’t know where else to begin.

He started moving closer to his shoulder structure, and was rewarded by another small moan of pleasure. Trailbreaker’s fingers dug into his hip as his grip tightened again. Rodimus murmured his own pleasure as his knees pushed together, their grip on Trailbreaker’s middle tightening. He loved being held like this.

He could feel Trailbreaker’s hips lifting in an attempt to find more stimulation. “Can you touch my valve again?” he murmured quietly.

Rodimus leaned back and smiled at him indulgently. “Of course.”

He sat up and rearranged his legs, so he could slide back between Trailbreaker’s and use his mouth as well this time. Trailbreaker’s hand drifted over his aft and thigh before he moved fully out of his reach. “You’re beautiful,” Trailbreaker breathed, glancing away, still shy.

“You don’t need to suck up,” he teased. Rodimus circled his slick entrance with his fingers, letting his glossa lap against his outer sensors. He braced his hands against Trailbreaker’s inner thighs as he slid his mouth down to caress his entrance. Rodimus glanced up at Trailbreaker, who was half-sitting up and staring down at him with a warm face. One of his large hands rested on his thigh, so Rodimus covered it with one of his own as he placed his lips to his partner’s valve entrance. Rodimus felt Traibreaker’s pedes press into his sides.

Rodimus slipped his tongue inside, and was rewarded with a soft sigh of pleasure and a squeeze of his hand. He lingered a little longer, since Trailbreaker seemed to enjoy it so much, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to escalate things since he couldn’t reach very far inside him like this.

Rodimus squeezed the inside of Trailbreaker’s thigh one last time before moving his mouth back to his external sensors and his fingers to his entrance. He started sucking the sensors under his spike housing as he slid his fingers inside, reaching for a certain spot.

Trailbreaker jerked against him, and Rodimus quickly moved to adopt the pace he was subconsciously trying to set. He didn’t seem to realise how strong he was, or how light Rodimus’ frame was, given the vigour of his movements. Rodimus took his chance to slide another finger inside and set his weight back, thinking it would be smarter to try and move with him than try to keep him still.

The thought of being fucked with that kind of strength had him dripping behind his panel. He didn’t particularly care what it was with, as long as he could feel that power.

Rodimus was almost relieved when he settled down a bit again, but then noticed the mech seemed to have frozen up, and not in a good way. He lifted his head and slowed his fingers’ movements while he looked for some further hint. “Are you doing ok?”

Trailbreaker hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. Rodimus slowly withdrew his fingers to avoid causing further discomfort, before sliding back up the berth again.

“Are you all right? Did I hurt you or something?” He squeezed the hand he was still holding when Trailbreaker wouldn’t look him in the optic.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I just…” He squeaked when Rodimus’ palm brushed his as he lay down. Or more accurately, he’d brushed the dome in it. “The anomaly tends to happen when I get worked up.”

Rodimus rolled his optics at the vague wording. Trying to figure out what he could do was driving him up the wall, not that he’d ever admit it. But Trailbreaker seemed to notice his expression.

“I could hurt you! And besides, it’s supposed to be a secret.”

“Secret?” Rodimus scoffed. “From who? I don’t exist, remember?”

Trailbreaker sat up and retrieved the berth cover as he spoke, and draped it over them as he lay back down. He pulled Rodimus close against his chest before replying. “Well neither do I, apparently.”

Rodimus smiled softly as he slipped into the warmth of recharge. But that didn’t mean he was going to give up so easily.

* * *

 

Drift grit his teeth as he transformed back to bipedal mode and balanced the cubes in his hands. He didn’t find the idea of a large spike intrinsically appealing, but most clients didn’t have the patience to wait for him to get himself adequately worked up. And when Thunderhoof was trying to prove a point, he pounded it home all right.

He could feel Thunderhoof was going to force him to make a decision sooner or later, and he and Rodimus couldn’t stay in the lab forever. They needed to find a way to get some sort of stability back into their lives. Preferably something that couldn’t be taken away so easily this time.

He steeled himself and did his best to cover any evidence of the discomfort he was feeling now as he approached the clinic door. Before he could knock, the door opened to reveal a worried Perceptor. “You got it?”

“Yeah, I’m not too late am I?” If that had all been for nothing…

He shook his head and stepped aside to let him in. “Ratchet!” he called.

The medic came out into the main room and gave Drift a quick once over before taking the cubes and hurrying back into his life support room. “Don’t mind him,” Perceptor said as they made their way over to the same doorway rather more slowly. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m…” Drift began, but trailed off when he saw the patients in the room. Or more specifically, the badge one of them was sporting. “You never said we were helping an Enforcer,” he said sharply.

“He has about as much control over his occupation as any of us,” Perceptor reminded him patiently. “We all know each other from our university days. This is an exception.”

Drift folded his arms, still not quite onboard with everything. He wondered if he should leave to avoid being seen in his new frame. But Perceptor didn’t seem to be that concerned. And there had to be a reason the Enforcer hadn’t been admitted to a normal hospital.

Drift felt the tiredness settle over him as he glanced around the room again. It was so late it was early, at this point. He looked over at the other patient, only to see the somewhat gruesome sight of him being about halfway through some sort of leg reconstruction. Another large miner sat by his slab, looking as tired as Drift felt.

The doctor, Ratchet, had already hooked his other patient up to a line with the highly filtered fuel, and was currently working on the miner. Perceptor turned back to him. “You can wait in another room if you’re that worried.”

Drift nodded, mostly because he wanted to sit down somewhere. He moved into another examination room and dropped his weight onto the slab. He pulled a cube out of his subspace and took a quick drink in an attempt to replenish some of his energy.

It wasn’t that long before Ratchet came into the room as well. He put a small device on the table near the entrance. Drift felt like a target when his optics locked onto him. “So, care to explain why _you’re_ limping everywhere?”

Drift felt his embarrassment rise and quickly shook his head. It shouldn’t have been noticeable, but then again, he was a doctor… “I’ll be fine in a day or so.”

“The least I can do after all that is give you a professional opinion,” he insisted, but more gently this time. Perceptor closed the door from outside, presumably to give him privacy, but it only served to make Drift feel wary in the end. He had technically met Ratchet before, but he was always just one patient of many in this place.

Drift sighed as the door closed. “It’s just my valve. It’s still a mess, so don’t worry about it.”

Ratchet frowned. “Did you bleed?”

“No, just a size issue,” he said bluntly. And a consequence of being in a hurry.

Ratchet rested his hands on his hips, but he couldn’t really make him do anything. “Haven’t you considered safer options?”

Drift raised a brow. Like he would be doing this if there was another viable option. “Such as?”

“Well if you have no choice but to work in the sex industry, there are websites where mechs put up pictures or vids of themselves in exchange for money. Wouldn’t that be less risky to your health?”

Drift glanced away. He thought doctors were supposed to be smart. “That’s not an option for someone like me. I can’t open a bank account, take good pictures, or get access to a device which is on the grid. Don’t you think everyone down here would be doing that if they could?”

Ratchet frowned, deep creases suddenly appearing around his eyes. This wasn’t an unusual expression for him. “I see. I didn’t consider that,” he admitted. He seemed to hesitate, but then continued speaking anyway. “Well, if it’s something you’re interested in, I could probably set up an account on your behalf once I’m promoted to CMO.” Creases around his mouth revealed themselves as he pulled a look of distaste. “I know how things work by now. Once you get that high up the chain, people stop asking questions and conducting inquiries.”

“Yeah, sure,” Drift muttered, hoping to end the conversation. As if he’d trust someone he barely knew with their livelihood. “What’s going to happen to this place if you get promoted?”

“Ironically, it’ll probably be easier to staff and run, even if I can’t be here myself as often. But if you’re not going to let me look at you, you should at least clean up,” he added, gesturing at the partition in the corner of the room. “My examination rooms only have sinks at the moment, but the water’s hot.”

Ratchet turned away and left the room, letting Drift take care of himself. He glanced around and didn’t spot any security devices. So, of course, the first thing he did was approach the cupboards and look for anything that might be useful in the near future.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe Trailbreaker can convince Drift he's not so bad after all...

Drift made his way to the exit as soon as he heard signs that the patients in the other room might be regaining consciousness soon. The sun wasn’t up yet, but he was up and more than ready to get going. He felt ridiculous, but it was getting hard to be apart from Rodimus for long.

Ratchet approached him before he could leave, and stood in the doorway to make sure he’d stay. Drift maintained his poker face, ready to be interrogated about taking basic medical supplies.

“I’ve finally figured out who you are, thanks to Perceptor. You do know the Enforcer in there is the one who brought you to me back then, don’t you?”

Drift was slightly taken aback by the unexpected topic. “No?”

Ratchet rolled his optics and changed his stance again. “Well, I suppose the high-grade would be thanks enough for him. Still, I am grateful you got me the resources to help one of my closest friends. Take this.” He held out a small, portable communicator. “It’s connected to the grid, but your location can’t be tracked. You can ask Percy to verify that if you don’t believe me.”

Drift noticed that he distinctly didn’t mention that it also had a camera and recording capabilities, but then, that was self-evident. And it wasn’t really any of the doctor’s business what he chose to do with those.

“I had it lying around in the back room, and realised it wouldn’t take much to fix it up. I’m sure you’ll get more use out of it than I ever will. If you decide you want to take me up on my offer of an account, or you need something else I can help with, my contact details are saved in it.”

The device could legitimately change his and Rodimus’ lives. All they needed now was a decent place to do this kind of thing, and actual tangible returns. “I’ll let you know how things go when I get a chance to talk to my… endura.” He should probably have a discussion with Rodimus about that sort of thing before saying things like that, as well.

Ratchet nodded, stepping aside to open the door for him. “Perceptor is going to help me work on a pair of legs for our mining friend, then he’ll head back to your side of town. I think Wheeljack has already gone on ahead,” he added as Drift passed him.

Drift nodded one last time before transforming into his alt mode. He still felt a little sensitive, but the overnight rest had let his frame go through some self-repair. Ratchet went back inside his clinic as Drift took off down the street.

There was little traffic at this time of night, though running engines weren’t entirely unusual. As long as he didn’t go hooning, no one would notice or care how early it was. He had a lot to think about in terms of what he and Rodimus were going to do next to try and get a step up the social ladder, so the distance disappeared quickly.

It was nearly noon by the time he made it back to Trailbreaker’s place. Neither he nor Rodimus would be expecting him back today, so he took the chance to move inside quietly, and swap the old energon cubes for new ones.

He stiffened when he heard a soft voice, but realised it was just Rodimus moaning quietly. A small pang of jealousy rose in his spark, even though he knew very well there could never be anything monogamous between them. He was all right with that, sincerely, but not having a choice about it did irritate him.

Drift moved over to the bedroom doorway. There was no point in closing doors when you lived alone, he supposed. He saw Rodimus seemed to be legitimately enjoying himself, at least, and was grateful for that much. He wouldn’t have told his to come here if he didn’t think it was safe, but it was nice to have that reaffirmed.

Drift supposed he should make himself known before they go too far into things. He wanted Rodimus too.

* * *

 

Trailbreaker woke slowly to warnings of a nearly empty tank flashing across his visor, and a smaller mech in his arms. Trailbreaker enjoyed the soft hum of the high performance engine of the frame leaning against him while his processor caught up with recent events. When he onlined his visual feed, he took a moment to glance over the red and gold frame in his arms.

Rodimus turned his head and smiled back as he tried to wriggle back under the berth cover properly. Trailbreaker wasn’t entirely sure what compelled him, but after retrieving the cover and draping it back over both of them again, he leaned down to press his lips to the lithe speedster’s. Rodimus casually slid his knee up the inside of his thigh.

It was like he’d heated up instantly at the touch. Trailbreaker leaned back slightly to glance down at his partner. He looked smug. “Changed your mind yet?”

Trailbreaker felt the heat rush to his faceplate. “Shut up,” he grumbled.

“I’d hate to leave you unsatisfied,” he replied softly, letting his hand trail over Trailbreaker’s side. “Unless I’m mistaken, we have all day together. So there’s no need to rush into anything.”

Rodimus pushed against his chest, and Trailbreaker let him roll them both over. He tried to respond to Rodimus’ mouth moving over his, and got a nice reaction when he took a moment to suck on his lower lip. Rodimus drew back to vent, before changing the angle of his head and returning to his ministrations. He let his optics go offline as he revelled in the feeling. Just this much, just for now…

When he thought he heard something by the berth, Trailbreaker onlined his optics again. Rodimus couldn’t see what was behind him, but a shape was fast approaching them. Fearing the worst, that someone was here to mete out punishment for what he’d done earlier, he rolled them both over and put up a barrier, just in case.

Rodimus strained to look over Trailbreaker’s shoulder. He winced when there was a crash against the opposite wall. “Drift? Are you all right?”

Trailbreaker tensed, and only resisted face-palming because his hands were otherwise occupied. Now he’d revealed his abilities for no good reason _and_ he’d hurt his… acquaintance?

He quickly pulled the shield back down and let go of Rodimus so he could turn and take a look at the damage himself. Drift groaned and stood, rubbing his lower back. “I’m fine, but some warning would’ve been nice.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was you,” Trailbreaker mumbled, bringing a hand to his aching head. He _really_ needed to refuel now. He glanced back at Rodimus, who seemed to be thinking very hard.

“That’s your thing? Energy shield? Can you like, stop lasers and stuff?”

“I don’t know,” he said, and sighed. He couldn’t deny that finally getting it off his chest was nice. “All I ever do with it is stop heavy rocks from falling.”

“And throw people across the room, apparently,” Drift added, sounding more disgruntled than he looked. But he had approached the berth again without much hesitation.

“I said I was sorry,” Trailbreaker repeated, adopting a hunched posture as he sat on the edge of the berth. Rodimus’ arms encircled him from behind, and patted his middle in a way that was probably meant to be comforting, but just felt silly.

“It’s all right, I’ll announce myself properly next time,” Drift said lightly, and Trailbreaker realised he was teasing him.

“I… I need fuel,” he said, making to get up and use it as an excuse to leave the room.

Drift managed to look contrite for a moment. “Why do you think I was walking around so quietly?” he asked, removing a cube from his subspace and handing it to Trailbreaker. It was still cold to touch. “I already sent back the used cubes, don’t worry.”

Trailbreaker sighed but downed the cube he had anyway. “You don’t need to sneak around. As long as you’re reasonable, you can take whatever you need.”

Rodimus’ hands slid down to his crotch and he choked a little on the energon he was halfway through swallowing. He switched air circulation priorities to his torso, letting his fans and the natural gaps in his armour take care of his internal temperature while he recovered. “Now that you don’t have to worry about revealing your secret, we can finish what we started, right?”

“But what if you don’t end up inside the field this time?”

“I’ll just make it so you won’t want me to leave,” Rodimus murmured. “You just proved you can control yourself, now you’ve just got to figure out how to do it consistently.”

Drift sat down at the head of the bed as Trailbreaker continued to hesitate. “I’m not sure this is the best way to do that,” he mumbled.

Rodimus pushed him to turn and lay back down again, and Trailbreaker found his head resting in Drift’s lap as Rodimus leaned over him. He bit his lip slightly at the thought of the round thighs against his helm, and the handsome mech looming over him.

“What I’m trying to say is: I want to make you feel good. So, won’t you let me, now that there isn’t a real reason not to?”

He couldn’t deny that his desire was building, if it had even abated at all since yesterday. “Well, ok… But if you go flying across the room, it’s not my fault, all right?”

“We’ll just have to hold on tight, then,” Drift said, shifting one of his legs and bending it at the knee so the side of Trailbreaker’s face was pressed against his inner thigh. His hands trembled, wanting to touch and yet not wanting to do something perverted or unwelcome.

“You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to,” he said quietly, recalling what Rodimus had said about Drift’s opinion of his current occupation.

Drift stroked a hand over the top of his helm. “If you’re going to interface with my partner, I think I want to be here for it.”

Rodimus smiled gently and leaned over to kiss Drift briefly. “Who said Drift was going to be doing any of the work? Aren’t you the one who needs to apologise to him, Trailbreaker?”

He knew Rodimus was just teasing him, but he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty. “I already said I was sorry. I’d never hurt you on purpose.”

“You like Drift’s legs, don’t you?” Rodimus said, easily seeing through him, as usual. “I can think of a few ways to have them completely in your face while you pleasure him.”

Trailbreaker had seen some pornography, of course. The end product wasn’t exactly contraband, even if making it was legally questionable. If he’d thought all the heat in his body had rushed to his face already, then he’d thought wrong. He was definitely… interested.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Drift said lightly, stroking his helm again, and resting a finger on a heated cheek strut.

Trailbreaker felt his head be braced as Drift slipped out from under him and replaced the support with a pile of berth covers. He only needed it thanks to the irregular structure on his back.

“Be careful now, I had to put up with someone a lot crueller than you, yesterday,” Drift murmured as he positioned his knees either side of Trailbreaker’s head. “Don’t put anything inside me until I say it’s all right.”

Trailbreaker glanced up with concern and nodded at his request. Of course he wouldn’t do anything to exacerbate that, at least not on purpose. While Drift hovered over him, Rodimus’ hands stroked at his interfacing panels and inner thigh. Trailbreaker sighed with pleasure, and it didn’t take much more to get him worked up enough for his panels to part.

Drift also opened up, and Trailbreaker realised he’d never really looked at his own interface array properly before, let alone someone else’s. Drift braced his hands against the wall at the head of the bed, and lowered himself over his mouth. Trailbreaker lightly rested his hands on the mech’s thighs and aft, not forcing him to move any which way, but trying to provide some stability.

“If you make Drift feel good, I’ll reward you,” Rodimus said, massaging his external sensors as though to both demonstrate and to give him some guidance on where to begin.

“I’ll do my best?” he mumbled, then stopped talking so he could run his tongue over Drift’s external sensors. He didn’t seem to react much, so he continued touching, slightly more firmly, as Rodimus was doing to him somewhere.

After a moment he seemed to hit on a good pace and pressure, and Drift’s legs pushed into his head on either side. Even without Rodimus helping him along, this was its own reward. He shifted his intense gaze of concentration from Drift’s midsection to his face. He quirked his mouth slightly when he noticed Trailbreaker looking, and it was probably the closest the mech had come to smiling at him.

Trailbreaker hummed against the valve in his face as Rodimus stuffed his fingers inside him. “Are you going to let me use my spike later, Trailbreaker?” he asked, seeming to want to make sure he wasn’t left out of the fun.

“Yes, please do,” Trailbreaker replied, slightly muffled by the mech hovering over him.

“Good, because seeing you both like this is getting me so hard.”

Drift let out a murmur of pleasure at that, and sent one of his hands behind him, presumably to grasp one of Rodimus’. He shifted the angle of his hips, presenting the entrance of his valve to Trailbreaker instead. “That feels really nice. You’re doing a good job.”

Trailbreaker felt heat blossom in his midsection at the praise. He started working his tongue against his entrance, able to taste his lubricants now.

Drift hummed softly, and he saw Rodimus’ hand reaching around to stroke the tip of the spike that seemed to want to come out as well. “Put your glossa inside me.”

Trailbreaker obeyed enthusiastically and Drift gasped. He noticed Rodimus retreat, then felt him begin to focus on him again. “That’s the way,” he said. “I’m going to enter you now.”

Trailbreaker spread his legs a little wider and gripped Drift’s thighs a little tighter. Drift offlined his optics and rested his face in the shoulder of the arm that was still balancing him against the wall. “More, please…” he mumbled, and started rhythmically moving his hips into his lips. His spike emerged, the base of it rubbing against Trailbreaker’s nose, occasionally.

Trailbreaker broke for a moment to take a proper vent before working to move along with the rhythm he was trying to set. Drift’s thighs clenched either side of his head again. Rodimus slid inside him easily, focused directly on causing him as much pleasure as possible.

Trailbreaker moaned into the valve on his mouth, one hand gripping Drift’s hip and the other reaching up to rest on the middle of his back. He pulled him down, closer, trying to reach further inside him, and feeling the slight stretch around his glossa. It got to a point where he relegated venting to his torso so he could continue stimulating the lithe mech sitting over him.

Drift’s hips jerked into him uncontrollably, and fluid gushed over his tongue and into his mouth. Drift gasped, but his spike remained hard. When he didn’t pull away right away, Trailbreaker let his glossa slide against his external sensors again. Drift moaned quietly, and Rodimus’ thrusts became harder and faster.

“Make him come again, Teebs,” Rodimus encouraged, voice hoarser than before.

Trailbreaker tightened his grip again, pulling Drift down, just wanting as much contact between them as possible. Drift bit his knuckle as he continued touching his sensitised valve, and now all he could really hear was Rodimus panting and gasping.

It didn’t feel like long before Drift tugged at his hands and made to move away. Trailbreaker immediately softened his grip and let him go. He felt the transfluid in his own valve, and Rodimus pulled back.

Rodimus failed to cover his grin with the fist in front of his mouth. Trailbreaker suddenly felt uncomfortable about the amount of fluid on his face.

“Don’t worry, we can clean that right up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something about the way the main scene started seems awfully familiar... nah :P


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's about that time in the story when an actual plot surfaces.

Rodimus watched Drift produce a wipe from his subspace and run it over Trailbreaker’s face gently. The larger mech panted in an attempt to reduce his temperature again, but Rodimus could tell he was still holding back.

“What’s wrong? Are you still worrying about pushing us away?” he asked as he changed the arrangement of his legs between Trailbreaker’s so his retracting interfacing equipment was out of the way and his hand could continue where he’d left off.

Drift snorted. “More like throwing us across the room.” He seemed to realise comments like that weren’t helping at all. “I mean, didn’t I just show you that you won’t do any serious damage to us, even if worse comes to worst?”

“Right, so just relax. There’s no need to feel embarrassed, and there’s no need to worry.” Two of his fingers slid inside him easily; he was still well-lubricated and raring to go. A sound of pleasure came from the back of Trailbreaker’s throat as his fingers passed over the sensors inside him.

“That’s easy to say, but…”

“At least promise me that you’ll try,” Rodimus murmured as he shuffled further back so he could lean forward and put his mouth to use as well. Drift had returned Trailbreaker’s head to his lap now that he was free to move around. He dug his fingers under the plating around Trailbreaker’s neck and massaged him in an attempt to get him to relax.

As high as his arousal was already, it didn’t take much until he started putting pressure on him with his knees. Rodimus went from stroking his external senses to sucking the area, and watched the spike, still mostly in its housing, gather fluid at the tip. He reached out to lay a hand on the more flexible plating of his abdomen, and dig his fingers in to find wires that would be zapping with charge.

Trailbreaker pushed his hips into his mouth at the ministrations, and seemed just about ready to be pushed into an overload. Not wanting to break what he was doing with his mouth, he gestured for Drift’s hand. His partner raised a brow bemusedly before moving one hand to take hold of him in a way they could communicate.

_His palm._

Drift tilted his head, but moved to take a hold Trailbreaker’s hand and bring it up to his face. He stroked a thumb over the dome, making the big mech shudder again. He smiled at Rodimus before using his mouth to pleasure him instead.

Trailbreaker moaned loudly and tensed up even more. He bucked his hips against Rodimus as a small spurt of fluid shot out of his spike, and more dribbled out of his valve entrance. Rodimus glanced up at the orange glow of another round shield encasing the three of them.

He smiled and reached out to touch it absently, gently. “See, what’d I tell you? This isn’t so bad…” Rodimus was cut off by another groan, and Trailbreaker shuddered again. He grinned. “The inside of your shield is an erogenous zone?”

Trailbreaker reset his vocaliser so he could answer. “It is when you touch it like that,” he replied weakly.

“We’ll just have to keep that in mind,” he replied lightly. “But, uh, we’re not going to have to sit here and get sticky before it’ll come down, right?”

Trailbreaker smiled. “No, it’s ok.” He sat up slowly and shifted so he could reach out and embrace both of them. “That felt amazing… Thank you.”

Rodimus kissed him briefly before leaning back to take in the expression on his face. He was relaxed and happy. In other circumstances, a well-satisfied customer, he might say. “There’s more where that came from.”

* * *

 

In the end they had stayed with Trailbreaker for the rest of his day off, indulging themselves in a real wash rack with hot water, and slightly overcharging on energon for the first time in what seemed like forever. They had reluctantly left for the lab again later in the evening, but Trailbreaker’s worry about being monitored was a reasonable one. If he got caught with them, it would be just as bad, if not worse, for them.

Since their tanks were still feeling relatively full the next day, and they had plenty of supplies for once, they didn’t worry too much about trying to find clients. They went straight to the temple to hide for a while, because it was safer than hanging out on the street, and the lab was feeling claustrophobic. Especially since Wheeljack had also returned that morning from wherever he’d gone, and was conducting experiments with electricity in the main room that looked worryingly volatile.

Wing glanced up at them as they walked past him and his optics widened. “What’s up with you?” Rodimus asked at the strange reaction. His frown only deepened when the guardian and knight turned away from them.

“Star Saber,” he called into the main room softly, to get the other mech’s attention. The more senior knight looked back at them and dropped the things he was tidying to approach them.

Rodimus noticed Drift getting edgy when he got a bit closer. At this rate they’d be trapped between them soon. If something was wrong, Rodimus thought he should at least try to defuse the situation before his partner’s trigger finger got too itchy.

“No, seriously. What’s wrong with you two?”

Star Saber paused, seeming to notice Drift’s reaction as he got closer. “I’ll take up your duty, Wing. You should be the one to explain.”

He nodded and put his sword on his back. “Come with me,” he said as he moved toward the back of the main room. Rodimus glanced at Drift and shrugged before following him. They all moved past what appeared to be the back wall of the temple and sat down in the sparsely furnished backroom. It seemed this was part storage area and part place for the knights to rest.

“I’m not sure how to explain this without sounding completely crazy,” he began nervously, once they had all knelt around a low table. “But last night I had a… an odd dream. But it turns out that Star Saber had seen exactly the same thing, so I’m more inclined to describe it as a premonition.”

Rodimus glanced away, somewhat confused. He glanced at Drift, whose brow was drawn. He spoke up. “It was about us or something?”

Wing nodded. “About…” he smiled, “ _Rodimus_ , more specifically. I saw you interfacing with the matrix, and being accepted by it. We’re waiting to hear back from the rest of our network of knights to see if anyone else saw this. But this could mean we will finally have a legitimate Prime to get behind again.”

Rodimus stared at him, not entirely sure what he should say or believe.

Drift, however, seemed to have some ideas. “That’s ridiculous. Primes chosen by the matrix are just some fairy tale. Mechs like us could never see the thing in person, let alone touch it, anyway.”

“I would argue there’s extensive recorded history of this sort of thing happening. And the matrix belongs to the circle, so we’ll find an excuse to get it back for a time,” Wing refuted lightly.

“So what if I am? What would it mean?” Rodimus asked, folding his arms.

“Hmm, rapid social change, perhaps? It’d be up to you, as the matrix bearer, of course. But I think we can all agree that that’s something desperately needed in this day and age.” He shifted slightly, becoming a little more serious. “With mechs who have been deigned useless being deactivated by the day, and no new hotspots showing for centuries, the natural order of things is being stretched to breaking point. Whether you step up or not, things are about to change dramatically.”

“But even if it ‘chose’ me, no one would take me seriously,” he protested. “I’m just… some whore.”

“The circle would take you very seriously, and we do have influence. To us, it’s not the interfacing part that’s the problem, it’s the selling part. But all that was forced upon you by the current structure of our society, so we see no fault there. The government may try to argue that ‘stellar interfacer’ isn’t a useful function, but I think they would be shocked to discover some of the older rituals the Primes were involved in.”

Rodimus snorted derisively, but he couldn’t help but feel hopeful in a strange kind of way. His ego was certainly keen to be held in such high regard, anyway. “What do you mean?”

“You’re _supposed_ to come in here to read about the religion,” Wing teased. “To put briefly, our species reproduces asexually, but those of us who were forged all have what we call interfacing equipment. Of course, those who are constructed cold follow this model as closely as possible as well.”

Rodimus wasn’t sure whether Wing knew about Drift’s origins, but he was beginning to wonder what the circle thought of him if they did.

“Nobody knows why we are forged with something so apparently useless, of course, but it does serve to bring us great pleasure. We have concluded that this should be treated as a gift from Solus Prime.” He paused. “The social stigma placed around intimate relations by the  state and media is not such a great gift. But isn’t it interesting how their own system increases demand for the service by making paying for it illicit?”

Rodimus shifted uncomfortably, feeling the conversation was going a little over his head. He hadn’t been built fast enough to race, so they’d try to shut him down, saying they couldn’t waste resources on a ‘useless’ member of society. That he had no right to take resources without at least trying to pay them back. So they had left him with two options: take his own life, or be deactivated.

Something – instinct, he assumed – had compelled him to take his chances down here, instead. And it’d only been through dumb luck that he’d met Drift so quickly, and that the otherwise ruthless streetmech had deigned him worthy of helping.

But the more he thought about it, the more he started to look for things that might confirm Wing’s theory.

“Isn’t the church what pushes the idea of functionism to begin with?” Drift protested.

“Yes, but the meaning of the term has been perverted. We’ve maintained a somewhat tenuous relationship with the state because we needed to hold onto our power. We’ve been waiting for a chance like this. At this point, it seems it’s either going to be this, or a messy revolution.”

“If you say so,” Rodimus murmured. “But there’s only one way to know for sure whether I am what you think I am. So let’s hold off on the life-changing thoughts until then.”

“Generally the matrix chooses a Prime, then the Prime chooses a Protector. I think, perhaps, you’ve tried to do that instinctively even without the matrix’s guidance. So, Drift… Will you train with us so you can serve the Prime properly?”

Drift scowled and folded his arms tightly. “I’m not his servant, I’m his… endura. So _no_ ,” he snapped. “I can already fight. Too well, some might say.”

“Not so much about fighting, more about history, politics, and the religion that is refusing to let you reject it. You wouldn’t say that about the Prime, if you knew…”

Drift stood suddenly, and Rodimus followed him in a show of support. “I said no. We’ve done just fine until now. We’ll keep surviving one way or another. Let’s go,” he snapped.

Rodimus let his rudeness go, knowing he was trying to make a point. “I guess we’ll be back sooner or later to hear the news,” he replied quietly, before following him out the door.

“Drift,” Rodimus called once they had exited the building. Drift glanced around, already looking like he was about to apologise. “You can call me your conjunx, if you want to.”

Drift opened his mouth slightly, but then closed it and smiled gently. “Thank you.” He turned back and they began walking down the street at a steady pace again. “I… I want to bond with you again. Do you think Trailbreaker will let us have some private time if we ask?”

“Probably,” Rodimus replied. “But if you can bring yourself to trust him, it might be nice to get him more involved than that…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been reading "Debt" by David Graeber while writing this fic, and just… holy world-building Batman! Maybe if I’d studied anthropology instead of business, I’d have written something worth publishing by now.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sexy/fluffy interlude before the next major plot point.

Drift glanced around and soon established that Trailbreaker wasn’t home yet. He and Rodimus knew from past experience that he never got back this early, and that was part of the reason he’d suggested they come here at this time. He wanted some alone time with Rodimus, even though he seemed more enamoured by the new relationship at the moment.

They moved through to the berth area, and almost instantly had their hands all over each other. Private time was precious, but Drift had to admit his thoughts were more caught up in their options for the future than what they were currently doing.

It seemed it wasn’t difficult for Rodimus to notice his straying attention. “Drift, are you still hung up on what Wing said earlier?”

“I guess,” he murmured. “We’re going to have to work out what we’re going to try next. I’ve got a way for us to make money by putting pictures online instead of risking doing everything in person, but that’ll rely on trusting someone I hardly know with our bank account. We could be adopted by the circle instead, and probably be killed in a political struggle. Or, if there’s nothing else, I guess we can try Thunderhoof’s proposition…”

“I understand all that. But what I meant was, nothing between us is going to change just because some nutters think I’m the real Prime. I’m glad I met you, and I’m grateful you showed me compassion then, even though it was probably a risk for you.”

Drift glanced away uncomfortably. “I knew Percy had the resources. What was the point in telling you to get lost? I didn’t think we’d stick together, but doing this kind of work with someone else makes things much less dangerous. It worked out for both of us, in the end.”

“What, no mystical feelings of connectedness? That’s not romantic at all,” Rodimus teased, and leaned in to kiss him, grinding their pelvic units together. “I don’t want you feeling insecure though. Even if what they say is true, I’m not going to lord it over anyone. Well, at least, not much…”

Drift cycled his optics. “I hope not.” He let Rodimus push him back to sit on the edge of the berth. To his surprise, rather than sitting in his lap, he dropped to kneel on the floor.

“I don’t think I’m above you, and I never will,” he said, looking up at him. He gently parted Drift’s legs and licked up the seam that hid his interfacing array. “Let me pleasure you?”

Drift shifted his hips and leaned back a little to give him easier access. Rodimus left gentle kisses along his hip structure and the plating across his middle, making him squirm with arousal. It didn’t take long for his lover to coax his spike out. Rodimus curled a hand around his shaft and ran his tongue over the tip.

“I love you,” he mumbled, before sliding his spike into his mouth.

Drift gasped at both the sensation and the open admission. He rested his hand on the back of Rodimus’ helm and stroked him gently. Rodimus sucked and moved his head back and forth, looking like there wasn’t anywhere he’d rather be.

Drift smiled gently, but still hesitated to reply. He didn’t know why it was so difficult to say, but it was more than easy enough to show, now. “Come up here,” he said, patting the berth beside him.

Rodimus looked surprised by the sudden request to change positions, but went along with it anyway. Drift turned to face him, but when he went to resume what he’d been doing before, he gently caught his wrists and pushed him onto his back. Rodimus’ look of surprise faded into a smile when he realised what he was doing.

Rodimus let his legs fall open and displayed his valve. Drift let the plating protecting his spark move away, and Rodimus quickly responded to that as well. Drift gazed down at his lover as he offered himself to him, before leaning down to gently kiss his mouth. He let go of Rodimus’ arms and slid his hands to rest under his helm and shoulder units.

Now that his hands were free, Rodimus pulled him in closer so that their sparks could meet. Warmth and pleasure crossed the connection between them. They lost themselves to sensation. Drift wasn’t entirely sure when he’d entered his partner, but he couldn’t get enough of the moans his long, gentle strokes were eliciting.

When Rodimus climaxed for the last time, he settled against the berth, gasping to keep his internal temperature under control. He held him close so their sparks didn’t have to part, and Drift was just fine with that.

At least, until he was reminded of where they were.

* * *

 

Trailbreaker wasn’t sure whether he could stop worrying about being punished for revealing his secret, but being so paranoid all the time was getting exhausting. He exhaled slowly as he unlocked his door and waved his hand over the sensor for the lights. Suddenly his fear came rushing back when he saw the door to his room was closed. It hadn’t been like that when he’d left; there was no point in partitioning his living quarters when he lived alone.

He slowly approached the door, hoping his already low fuel level from a day of hard work would stretch enough to cover him if he needed it. The door slid open near silently, and he peered into the dark room with a frown. He glanced at the door to the wash rack, open and empty, before turning the other way to focus on his berth.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the orange light emitting from his visor revealed it was just Rodimus and Drift curled up under his berth covers. The cover shifted as Drift onlined his optics and sat up a little. Trailbreaker glanced away, embarrassed, when he saw a glimpse of spark light being closed over by chest plating.

“I told you, it’s dangerous to come here all the time. I don’t know how much I’m being monitored, so…” He trailed off when he realised he couldn’t say such things sternly and seriously. It was nice to have company after being so alone for so long, and the last thing he wanted to do was push them away.

“We’re not trying to cause you trouble, we just needed somewhere safe and private to bond,” Drift replied carefully as Rodimus slowly sat up as well.

“Well that’s fine, just… I worry.” He brought a hand to the back of his head. “Anyway, I’m going to clean up and fuel. If you want to stay, you might as well.”

Before either of them could answer, he turned toward the wash rack and slipped inside it. While cleaning himself, he reflected that he hadn’t seen Megatron or Terminus for several days. He worried that something bad had happened to them, the kind of bad he was currently so paranoid of.

He assumed his resource consumption was being monitored, and wondered whether there had been any changes big enough to bring up a red flag. Then again, as far as energon consumption went, it had probably actually decreased over all. He found his problem embarrassing, so when his new friends were around he avoided drinking any more than the three cubes that would bring him back to normal after being drained from a hard day of force field use. He felt like he had more purpose now, so there was more reason to try and discipline himself.

His water allowance for the day almost ran down before he finally made himself leave both his thoughts and the wash rack, and face them again. He managed to put things off for a little longer by having his fuel in the main area of his hab, but drinking that and powering everything down for the night could only distract him for so long.

As he approached the berth, there was a little shuffling as Rodimus and Drift moved over for him. Rodimus looked worn out, while Drift looked a little more relaxed than before. They may have all interfaced before, but sparks were another matter entirely, given how delicate they were.

Trailbreaker eased himself down to lie on top of the berth covers. One of Rodimus’ hands came out and rested on his middle.

“Remind me I have something important to tell you in the morning,” Rodimus mumbled.

“Ok,” Trailbreaker agreed, slightly bemused. He didn’t know what it could be, but figured recharge was an attractive prospect right now. Trailbreaker let his arm fall across both of them as he powered down for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was meant to be a quick interlude before the next phase of the plot, but it ended up being more trouble than it was worth and taking two weeks to write instead of two days? Well, I know exactly what's happening in the next few chapters so they shouldn't take nearly as long.


	11. Chapter 11

Trailbreaker found himself onlining far earlier than he’d like, and looked down to see Rodimus still resting against him, while Drift was sitting up ramrod straight with a hand resting on the wall. Trailbreaker opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but paused when he saw Drift raise a finger to his lips, silently shushing him.

Trailbreaker’s visor brightened when he realised there were footsteps coming from the next room. Drift put a hand across his visual feed, trying to dim down the light, he soon realised. Trailbreaker hadn’t noticed that he’d closed the door behind him again when coming into the room yesterday, but was now infinitely glad he had.

“Clear…” a soft voice said, barely audible. Trailbreaker couldn’t make out many of the words. “…still here…”

Dread curdled the fuel in his tank at that. They were Enforcers trying to take them in covertly? Of course, he knew what the consequence for Drift and Rodimus would be, and wasn’t surprised when Drift reached for his gun and started crawling toward the end of the berth. If they were Enforcers, he’d be ridiculously outgunned.

It wasn’t until Trailbreaker began to sit up that he noticed Rodimus had woken up as well. Trailbreaker reached out and grabbed Drift’s shoulder armour in an attempt to make him wait.

“Wait, let me try to head them off,” he murmured as quietly as possible. “It’ll be less dangerous, might even be able to give you two time to get out of here. I… don’t think they’d offline me just for this.”

Drift did pause at that, and eventually nodded. They all got off the berth and Trailbreaker made his way over to the door. He purposely walked loudly before calling, “Hello? Is someone there?”

All movement and talking on the other side of the door abruptly ceased. Trailbreaker had hoped they’d at least respond or something. He reset his vocaliser and tried again, getting ready to defend himself just in case.

“Hello?” he asked one more time before opening the door.

“Um, hi?” the Praxian on the other side of the door said almost sheepishly, his rifle resting across both hands, the business end pointing toward the ground, thankfully. “Don’t be alarmed, but I think some fugitives have been breaking into your house for shelter. Mind if we take a look in there?” he asked, nodding at the bedroom entrance.

Trailbreaker realised he’d just saved his own hide by pretending to be oblivious, but he wasn’t about to let the Enforcers see the other two if he could help it. “I think I’d have noticed them while I was getting ready for recharge. Why don’t you check around the back first?”

The Enforcer shuffled from foot to foot, glancing over at his partner, who had just come into sight. He had a similar build, but a different paintjob.

Unfortunately, this one was more straightforward and didn’t seem to care about his bluff. “If they’re still here, they’d be inside. Or are you going to continue obstructing officers of the law?”

“I don’t know what you…” Trailbreaker jumped as a shot fired through the gap between his arm and torso. As soon as he’d realised it had come from Drift’s weapon and hit the aggressive Enforcer’s hand, he threw up his shield to protect them.

One of them started yelling for backup while the other backed up. Trailbreaker glanced back at Drift desperately. There was no way he was getting off scott free now. “You keep Rodimus safe, I’ll get the energon you’ve got in storage and meet you outside,” he snapped as he shakily and messily tried to reload the weapon using the remains of a half-empty cube.

“But Drift…”

“Your shield eats up too much energy. If you’re going to live with us on the streets, we’ll need more supplies. Get outside and try to get out of their sight!”

Trailbreaker hesitated before nodding. He stood in front of Rodimus and lowered the shield so that Drift could sprint to the other side of the room. Unfortunately, the other two took this as their chance to fire on Trailbreaker. Lasers burnt holes through his arm and the side of one of his chest plates. The searing pain made it difficult to concentrate, but knowing things could get much worse did wonders in getting a front-facing shield back up.

Rodimus grabbed his arm, probably also asking if he was all right, but Trailbreaker was too busy watching the Enforcers make signals at each other to pay much attention. The aggressive one went after Drift, while the other stood his ground and trained his sights on them. They sidled over to the doorway and got out without any interference, which only made him worry all the more.

Trailbreaker’s focus was on the mech with the weapon in front of them, so he didn’t notice Rodimus had left his side until it was too late. He turned to find the red mech being restrained by another two Enforcers, with a third holding a gun to his spark chamber. “Take down your shields, or we’ll start shooting,” he threatened.

Trailbreaker glanced back inside to see Drift was in a similar predicament, and although he still had some leverage to fight back, he wasn’t going to overpower both of them. He bit his lip and clenched his hands helplessly. There was nothing he could do now. Why did he let either of them stray from his side for a single second?

_Useless!_

His indecisiveness showed in the way his shield flickered down slowly. “No!” Drift yelled as he threw himself forward, and only now did Trailbreaker notice the energon leaking from his shoulder. Guessing Drift’s strong reaction wasn’t directed at what he’d done, Trailbreaker glanced around in Rodimus’ direction again and saw the light building in the barrel of the laser gun.

Rodimus cringed away from his attackers before a burst of orange flames engulfed all four of them. Drift seemed to recover from the shock of seeing this the fastest, and took his chance to slip out of the hold he’d been put in. Trailbreaker put his shield back up when Drift was close enough, and followed the lithe mech as he approached the fire.

“What did they _do_?” Drift hissed, trying in vain to look through the flames.

The fire guttered out a few moments later, and they were able to approach properly. Three bodies collapsed to the ground. Rodimus stood in the middle, hunched over slightly with smoke trailing off his frame, but he seemed fine otherwise. The other three, on the other hand, didn’t look like they would ever be getting back up.

“Roddy?” Drift asked, quickly approaching him and touching the stunned mech’s face gently. He snatched his hand back a moment later, staring in worry and in wonder. “You are literally burning hot. What did you do, and how are you still in one piece?”

“It wasn’t that hot,” he mumbled, wringing his hands as though it would help him feel what Drift was feeling. “We need medical help,” he added, glancing between the three of them, all injured in some way or another.

Trailbreaker glanced back through the shield that separated them from the Enforcers who were still inside. “I’m guessing they’re calling for back up, we need to get out of here one way or another. Everyone ok to transform?”

“Yeah, but get out of their sight first. Might buy us some time if they don’t know what our alts look like,” Drift replied. “Think we can make the longer drive to Percy’s doctor friend?”

Rodimus nodded, though he seemed to be finding it difficult to walk in a straight line. Trailbreaker only hoped that would wear off before they had to start driving at high speeds through the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi friends, sorry for another short/loosely edited chapter. I’ve started working full time so updates can’t be as frequent as I’d hoped in the last AN after all. But my goal is to get a new chapter of this up every second Sunday night from now on, so hopefully that’ll mean this will get finished sometime this year!


	12. Chapter 12

Drift cradled the arm that was being held in a sling while his shoulder unit recovered. He could hardly believe their luck. When they’d arrived at Ratchet’s doorstep, the doctor himself had actually been home. He gazed down at Rodimus, who was still resting but otherwise seemed fine. Ratchet had forced him to fuel before sending him to sleep, commenting that the only thing he seemed to have done was use up a lot of fuel in a stupidly short amount of time.

Ratchet had been much more concerned about Trailbreaker’s multiple open wounds, and was currently operating on the next berth over. Drift wasn’t entirely sure what they could or should do about their new situation. They could barely keep themselves fuelled, let alone a larger mech who naturally burned through even the good grades quickly. During their escape he hadn’t had time to grab more than eight cubes, and it would be stupid to go back for the rest any time soon.

They needed help, but he wasn’t sure where to get it from. What options did they have, really? Working for Thunderhoof would be profitable in the short term, but once he was under the crime lord’s thumb again he knew his good graces wouldn’t last for long. The circle would probably look after them, but what would they do if all this Prime talk came to nothing?

And… what if it _did_ come to something?

Drift glanced up when he noticed Ratchet approaching. He didn’t need to ask, Ratchet was already explaining. “He’s tough, he’ll be fine. Though he should probably stay here for a couple of days.” He paused by Rodimus’ berth and glanced over his second patient thoughtfully. “Could you explain what happened again?”

Drift shifted and hesitated, trying to think of where to begin. “He was… in a life-threatening situation. A wall of flame seemed to surround him, though it looks like only his attackers were affected by it. I’m not sure how or why it was able to happen. He’s never done anything like that before.”

“Interesting,” he murmured as he brought up the results of the scan he’d taken when they’d first arrived. “There’s no evidence of heat damage inside or outside his frame. What condition were the others in?”

Drift shrugged and glanced away. “We didn’t wait around to find out, but they were at least unconscious when we left.”

Ratchet sighed, but didn’t comment on that further. “Then it looks like he could be another anomaly. Impossibly high heat resistance, and the fire is self-explanatory. But I’m not the one with the expertise in that kind of thing.”

Drift turned back to look between his friends, feeling more lost than before. The two of them were too recognisable and, at this rate, consumed too much energon. If this had happened a few short years ago, he would probably have fled from the situation to protect himself. But now he had the motivation to stick around and find a way to solve this, for better or worse.

Unsteady footsteps came from outside the examination room. Drift glanced behind him and nearly had a spark attack when he saw the blue and red bot with an Enforcer badge. His hand immediately twitched toward the gun that was still magnetised to his hip structure, but Ratchet took hold of his arm in a surprisingly strong grip before he could so much as touch it.

“Orion, you should be getting bed rest. The office can wait another day. And if they insist, I can give them my doctor’s note in the form of a kick up the aft.”

Seemingly happy to completely ignore this advice, Orion shuffled into the room, apparently still finding it difficult to walk properly. “That can wait, I have information that can help these people,” he replied, before addressing Drift directly. “There’s a certain senator who is interested in looking after and finding out more about anomalies. I know energon can be a problem with them, but the senator can provide everything they need, and help them find out more about what they can do.”

The solution seemed too good to be true, and it was coming from a source Drift didn’t exactly find trustworthy. He folded his arms and looked away, not sure what to think. It would be easy to let them go off and do their thing, and he could go back to just worrying about himself. But of course, things were more complicated than that now. He didn’t want to be separated from Rodimus.

“It’s true,” Orion insisted, misreading the reason for his hesitation to answer. “His facility is obviously located in an upper-class sector, but I can get you there without any hassle. The three of you could stay there as long as need be, and they can learn how to manage their abilities.”

“This is something we all need to be awake to talk about,” Drift deflected.

“And you’re not going anywhere yet, anyway,” Ratchet snapped at Orion, walking over to shoo him back into the other ward. When he’d closed the door behind them, Drift settled back onto the empty portion of Rodimus’ berth, still no closer to a decision than before. Now he just had more options and less direction.

* * *

 

Rodimus hovered on the edge of a proper reboot as voices continued to fill the space around him. He felt tired and yet energised at the same time, as though he’d driven at top speed for several hours yesterday. Eventually he recognised that one of the voices was Drift’s. He sounded calm and relaxed, given the attack they had suffered recently, so he guessed they must have gotten somewhere safe before he’d collapsed.

Collapsed from what, he still wasn’t entirely sure. Nothing like that had ever happened to him before.

He let his systems reboot properly and let his visual feed come online as well. He saw Drift leaning against the end of his berth, speaking to Wing, of all people. Rodimus glanced around and realised he was in some sort of medical facility. Probably Ratchet’s, though it’d been so long since he’d last been here that he couldn’t be sure.

He was relieved to see Trailbreaker lying on the next berth over, seeming to be recovering from his injuries just fine. He turned his attention back to the other two when he noticed Wing was trying to look over Drift’s shoulder to see if he was awake.

“Rodimus, I’m glad to see you’re all right,” he said gently.

Drift glanced back at him and gave him a rare, soft smile. Rodimus returned it before turning to Wing, who was walking around to kneel by his bedside. “Hey,” he greeted awkwardly, at the sudden movement.

“I wanted to let you know that Star Saber and I weren’t the only ones who had the vision. The members closer to the council are attempting to formulate a plan to get the matrix back in our hands for a short time so we can get confirmation once and for all. But from what I hear about happened yesterday, the evidence is continuing to pile up even without the matrix.”

Rodimus was confused for a moment, before realising that must have been what he and Drift were just talking about. “How so?”

“The flames of the forge, it’s all very exciting. It might be inappropriate for me to say, but I do wonder if you are Solus Prime come again,” he admitted.

“Does that mean you want to train Drift still?” he asked, looking at his partner questioningly.

Wing glanced back at him as well. “We can’t train someone who isn’t willing, but it’s important for him to know about the circle if you choose him. Usually the Protector becomes the leader of the circle, though that might not be possible this time, at least not right away. But it seems there is a friend of a friend you can go to learn about your newfound ability, and for protection?”

Rodimus looked to Drift for an explanation. “Percy and Ratchet’s friend, the Enforcer that I helped save, apparently knows someone who’s conducting research on anomalies or something. It could be a better option than trying to survive like we’ve been doing so far, and it might be better for the two of you, anyway.”

Rodimus frowned. “You would come with us, wouldn’t you?”

Drift glanced away with a shrug. “If the guy is willing to provide for me as well, of course I want to. But if all this is true, well… my time might be better spent with the circle members.”

Rodimus wasn’t sure what to say, and when he didn’t respond immediately, Wing spoke up. “It could be some time before we get the matrix into our possession. If you are going to travel to find out more about this person, you would have time to go with them for a while.”

Rodimus glanced over at Trailbreaker, still recovering in a state of recharge. He and Drift could barely look after themselves as it was, and he wasn’t sure what kind of work Trailbreaker could even do down here to get the amount of fuel he needed. At least, there wasn’t really anything he could do that didn’t involve violence.

He turned back to Drift. “I think in the meantime we should check it out, for Trailbreaker’s sake, at least.” They could try using the communicator to put pictures and vids up in exchange for money, but he couldn’t help but think Trailbreaker, and possibly himself as well, would be better off with proper help and learning to deal with the anomalous powers.

Drift nodded, folding his arms as best he could with the sling. “All right then, when you both recover, let’s do it,” he agreed.

Wing stood again and stepped back so that he wasn’t standing over him, exactly. He looked pleased by the apparent turnaround in Drift’s attitude. “I should get back to Star Saber. If you need anything, come see us again.”

As Wing left, Drift took his place by Rodimus’ side, but sat on the berth instead. He took his hand in his uninjured one and sat quietly, contemplatively. They would be taking a risk by doing this, but they had been taking risks since they’d followed Trailbreaker home the first time.

Things might get better this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to say hi and thanks to all the people who've been leaving kudos and/or bookmarking/commenting this fic. I only wish I had more time to edit these chapters!


	13. Chapter 13

When Trailbreaker came to again, he was relieved to feel the pain had all but disappeared, and the bullet holes had been filled in professionally. His vision adjusted to the room’s bright lighting as he looked around. Another wave of relief passed over him when he saw both Drift and Rodimus were sitting on the next berth over, both of them apparently fine.

Rodimus caught his optic and smiled as he slid off the berth. Drift followed him as he crossed the space between them. “Hey, how are you feeling?” Rodimus asked as he leaned over him.

Trailbreaker nodded and reset his vocaliser when he had difficulty speaking. “I’m fine,” he replied.

There was a humph from the doorway as someone entered the room. “I’ll be the judge of that,” the medic grumbled as he ran a scanner over him. He turned away from Rodimus and Drift while he inspected the results projection, but Trailbreaker could see him frowning down at it. “You two need to go amuse yourselves for a while.”

Rodimus looked personally offended by this sudden change in mood, but Drift just dragged him over to the doorway, seeming to understand. Trailbreaker turned his gaze on the doctor when the door shut behind them.

He quickly explained his demand for privacy. “You’ve been suffering from an interface array dysfunction, haven’t you?”

“Uh, yeah…” he replied vaguely, embarrassed. It was weird talking about this kind of thing with someone, especially since he probably didn’t go to the doctor’s nearly as often as he should.

“If you’d like, I can fix up the physical issue now. As long as you don’t destroy it through excessive fuelling again, that is,” he added, suddenly giving him a disapproving look. He returned to speaking normally before Trailbreaker could stutter out an excuse. “But I doubt it’s simply a physiological problem,” he warned.

Trailbreaker clasped his hands over his middle. “I’d… thought as much,” he replied. “But, I probably won’t get another chance like this in a long time, now that everything’s gone to scrap.”

Ratchet flicked the projection of the scan to a screen, and retracted the scanner itself. He moved to the sink to wash his hands, while Trailbreaker shifted, slightly uncomfortable. He wanted to operate _right_ _now_?

“I can put you under again for a little while, if you like. But this really isn’t going to take very long,” he said as he returned with dry and clean hands.

Trailbreaker nodded to indicate his assent to this, and Ratchet continued talking as he worked. “I don’t mean to kick you out in this condition, but I do need to get back to my real job. Apparently the Prime has suddenly decided he wants to come to the area, and giving one moron a check-up is supposedly more important than giving out much needed patch-ups.”

Ratchet flicked a switch on the monitoring machine Trailbreaker was still hooked up to. “This is going to put you back into a temporary resting state. I’ll tell the other two to start sorting out whatever they need to so you can all leave for the senator’s before I have to shut up shop tomorrow. I’ll be back shortly,” he assured before he turned and made his way toward the door.

Trailbreaker tried to relax back into the berth, but found the whole thing a little disconcerting. He felt like he was causing trouble for his friends again, but they’d all known this would happen eventually if they kept seeing each other. He supposed he wasn’t that great at saying no.

His optics flickered offline as stasis crept up on him.

* * *

 

Rodimus sprawled across one of the few small, bench-like seats that made up the waiting room – or rather, waiting corner – of Ratchet’s clinic. He let the air shift out of his frame and seemed to deflate slightly. He glanced up and noticed the Enforcer had followed them out instead of returning to his room, now that Ratchet was back in the room with Trailbreaker.

But he didn’t get much of a glimpse at the guy before Drift shifted slightly so that he was standing between them. He didn’t usually notice the little things Drift did out of caution, but for better or worse, he was slowly becoming accustomed to it. His main concern was that he’d panic and burn Drift if he stood too close when something dangerous happened. At least with Trailbreaker they only had to worry about being flung across the room…

“Uh, do you want me to let Perceptor know you’ll be coming in to see him soon?” he asked, pausing at the room’s entrance. He seemed to be fully aware of what Drift’s behaviour meant.

Drift tilted his head. “It’s fine, I already told him.”

“I see,” he replied carefully, glancing away again. “My friend may be a senator, but he is a good person. I’m grateful for what you did for me, but I won’t put anyone dangerous in his midst.”

Rodimus shifted uncomfortably, but decided he should speak up. “Don’t take it personally. We’ve never had a good time with Enforcers, and Drift encountered… well, some of the dodgier ones. If your friend is as good as you say, there won’t be any problems.”

The Enforcer frowned to himself, but didn’t argue with their assessment. “Unfortunately, some mechs join for… unethical reasons. My assurances may mean little to you, but not all of us are like that. Usually the officers who aren’t so good at the job get put down here, and usually they’re bitter or negative because of it.”

Drift shuffled his feet and nodded. He turned back to glance down at Rodimus. “I’d better go see Perceptor and,” he hesitated a moment, but Rodimus could guess what he meant, “say goodbye.”

He nodded. “I’ll make sure Trailbreaker’s all right. I guess we’ll meet you back here. Maybe Ratchet will have time to check your alignment before he has to leave.”

“We’ll see. Percy can only work so fast.” He made his way toward the exit. The Enforcer watched him go from the doorway on the opposite side of the room. “See you all in the morning, probably.”

Once Drift had gone outside and taken off down the street, the Enforcer sagged against the wall. “Your friend is registered as Deadlock, but he’s the same mech as Drift, right? The one who single-handedly murdered five Enforcers?”

Rodimus looked away sharply, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get away with lying about something like that. “I don’t know much about legal terms or whatever, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t count as murder in a real court. His significant other back then was unarmed and killed in front of him. Provoked attack, if not self-defence, right?”

“I can’t tell whether that’s true or not from the case records,” the Enforcer replied, seeming to have direct access to the grid from his HUD. “I’m just trying to make sure I’m not about to set a dangerous criminal loose in my own friend’s place. I think he only has one pede in reality; I don’t know how he looks after himself, sometimes,” he said, but he was wearing a fond expression.

“If he’s everything you say, Drift won’t hurt him,” Rodimus assured. “I think he just doesn’t want to lose me like he lost… well…” Drift didn’t talk about Gasket much, but Rodimus did have some ability to observe and learn.

The Enforcer nodded, seeming to be able to accept this much. “The first time I met Drift, he was just a scared kid who still thought shooting up was a good way to escape from his lot in life. I never did manage to pry him out of Ratchet’s clinic here and get him down to the station. He doesn’t still do that, does he?”

Rodimus hadn’t been aware Drift had ever been like that. “No, we have enough trouble getting our hands on fuel, and that’s only getting more and more difficult,” he said, glancing past the Enforcer at the door he knew Trailbreaker was currently behind.

“All right,” he said, and pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against. “I should rest if we’re going to start travelling in the morning. I’m sure Ratchet will be done with your classified friend soon.”

As he turned away, Rodimus froze in place. It was frightening how much information he had access to, all immediately downloadable to his HUD. If one of Perceptor’s current projects wasn’t a mod that would let the user crack the system, he’d soon make sure it was. Rodimus wrapped an arm across his middle uncomfortably. Did the Enforcer know all about him and his past as well?

Ratchet saved him from getting too caught up in those thoughts when he opened the door to the room they’d all been staying in until not too long ago. “Trailbreaker’s waking up. He could probably use your support,” he said shortly, before turning to enter the Enforcer’s room, and closing the door behind him again.

Rodimus stood, wondering what all the secrecy had been about in the first place. When he entered the room he saw Trailbreaker was sitting up, perfectly fine, sipping on some low-grade and looking disappointed. Rodimus was grateful his new frame had come with Perceptor’s energon filter. Though, he did wonder if he would need to change his body as well. His crimes weren’t quite so heinous as Drift’s, but getting caught would still land him in hot water. Not that heat seemed to matter to him anymore…

“Rodimus,” he said, calling him back to reality. “Where’s Drift?”

“He’s gone to get reformatted again. He’s going to look pretty different when we see him again, but don’t worry, I told Percy not to touch the legs.”

Trailbreaker looked flustered and simply grunted in reply.

Rodimus patted his hand to show he was only teasing. “Still feeling ‘fine’?”

“Yeah,” he replied, nodding more decisively now. “Ratchet just fixed the physical part of my, uh, problem,” he explained, glancing down at the berth covers sitting over his legs.

Rodimus grinned and sat down on the berth. “That must be exciting,” he said. “We’re going to a different sector tomorrow, to try and find someone who wants to help weirdos like us. Think you’ll be up to travel by then?”

“Yeah,” Trailbreaker said. “I’m a bit nervous about all this, but I guess we don’t have a choice now.”

Rodimus nodded. “I’m sorry we dragged you into all of this. We’ll try to make it up to you, properly this time.” He paused, and casually entwined his fingers with Trailbreaker’s. “And I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time before now.”

Trailbreaker glanced up him in surprise, and then smiled gently. “It’s all right.” He squeezed his hand gently.

Rodimus stroked his thumb over Trailbreaker’s nearest finger. “So, the plan is, we’ll be leaving with Ratchet’s Enforcer friend tomorrow when Drift gets back…”


	14. Chapter 14

Trailbreaker glanced over at the corner of the room while he neatly folded away the berth cover he’d been using. Drift was getting his new frame checked by Ratchet, and was currently in the middle of circling his arms in slow motion while the doctor observed.

“Hmm, looks a bit more like he did back before I met him,” Rodimus murmured as he got up from where he’d been slouching nearby on a bare section of the berth. He stood next to Trailbreaker and spoke even more quietly. “I can’t wait until the three of us get another opportunity to be alone together.”

Before Trailbreaker could do much more than heat up with embarrassment, Rodimus had already started walking over to the other two.

“Everything seems fine,” he heard Ratchet say gruffly. “You should have let me check before transforming to drive back here, but I suppose it couldn’t be helped.”

“It couldn’t,” Drift confirmed bluntly, returning to his normal stance. “Are we ready to go?”

Rodimus nodded. “Yeah, let’s fuel up and get out of here.”

Trailbreaker slowly made his way over while Ratchet left the room, undoubtedly to check on his other patient. Drift removed a cube from his subspace and handed it to Rodimus, before removing two more and handing one to Trailbreaker. Trailbreaker shifted uncomfortably when Drift wouldn’t look him in the optic.

Drift took a long draw from his cube before finally speaking again. “It’s my fault all of this happened. If we had have been more careful, we could have kept things going for a lot longer. But now you’ve lost what you did have because of us.” He seemed to think for a moment before adding, “I’m sorry.”

Trailbreaker shook his head slowly. “No, things would have ended up like this sooner or later. You don’t need to apologise.”

Drift shrugged and turned away slightly, seeming to have finished saying what had been on his mind. Trailbreaker finished his cube much faster than the two smaller mechs, but it didn’t take them long to finish fuelling either. They left the cubes by the examination room’s sink, thinking Ratchet would have more use for them than they would.

When they exited into the main room of the clinic, they saw the Enforcer was getting another check-up. Ratchet patted him on the shoulder with a sigh and stepped away from him. “I’ll be _fine_ ,” the Enforcer said emphatically. It probably wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation.

Ratchet waved his hand sharply. “You’re really not, but it’ll have to do. I’ve got to get going myself.”

The Enforcer nodded and turned toward them instead. “Shall we, then?” He gestured toward the front door.

Drift nodded and moved towards the door, pausing to hold it open for him and Rodimus. He noticed that Rodimus had walked through quickly, and that Drift’s optics hadn’t left the Enforcer. Sensing the tension, he hurried through as well. The Enforcer followed them, and Drift quickly brought up the rear, closing the door behind him.

The three of them followed the Enforcer as he walked stiffly down the street. “Getting you all into the upper sector won’t be that difficult. There’s still a functioning service lift a few sectors over, and I have special permission from the Senator to move mechs across the borders even if we do encounter anyone. We’ll head over two sectors and then make our way up.”

“Sure,” Drift muttered, and Trailbreaker wasn’t sure what else there was to say. “Orion, was it?”

“Yes, Sergeant Orion Pax of Iacon,” he said. The words were that of a stiff and formal reply, but he seemed to say it amiably enough.

But something didn’t quite add up. “If you’re ranked so highly, why were you left to your own devices instead of taken to a hospital?” Trailbreaker asked.

What could be seen of his expression above the face mask fell. “I’m planning to start looking into that once I get you three to safety. I suspect it has something to do with my support for Senator Shockwave. Although I find it somewhat ironic that because of all this I met… Well, there’s no use speculating now. I can only respond to what Zeta Prime wants, at this point.”

“Didn’t Ratchet say he’s coming down here for some reason? You sure that doesn’t have anything to do with you?” Rodimus asked.

Orion shrugged. “I hardly think I’m important enough to even register on his radar, let alone bring him out here. Are you sure he’s not here because of _you_?” Rodimus looked taken aback. “I heard what the knight said.”

“Even if that is true, it’s probably better if we all get out of here now,” Drift replied, cutting off the line of questioning. “Can you transform? Everyone here is a wheeled vehicle, so it’d be easier to travel that way.”

Orion nodded and changed into his vehicle mode. “You’re right. We can sort things out once we get to the Senator’s.”

Once they got going, it was too difficult to talk over the sound of their engines, since Orion didn’t have access to their private comm signals. Although, Drift and Rodimus were too paranoid to use theirs anyway, Trailbreaker remembered. But if their friend Perceptor was the one who had said it was being hacked, Trailbreaker was inclined to believe him after the quick work he’d done on Drift.

It was nearing mid-morning when they arrived at the elevator that would take them up to a higher level of the city. Trailbreaker distantly remembered having lived up here once upon a time. But after he’d started working exclusively in the mining sites on the outskirts of the city, he’d been convinced to move closer to the edge for convenience’s sake. They had looked after his basic needs so he hadn’t questioned it much back then, but now…

They followed Orion when he came to a halt and transformed back into his bipedal mode. He casually climbed the stairs to the elevator and scanned his Enforcer ID. “Now that I’ve scanned in here, I’m back on the grid again. I’m going to have to drop you all off quickly and return to my station. If I take too long to get from here to there, it’ll raise suspicion.”

The elevator doors slid open behind him, and the four of them squeezed inside. Trailbreaker briefly wondered whether his own ID would have been enough to get him back to the higher levels, or if they had intended to leave him down here for good all along.

“Stay close to me, we still have to cross this sector without raising suspicion,” Orion said quietly before the elevator doors opened to the raised section of the street. “Since we all have wheels it’d be a bad idea to take the train, but I’m going to follow it around to the Academy the Senator’s anomalies all live at.”

“I told you they exist,” Rodimus muttered, nudging Trailbreaker playfully before changing back into his car mode. Trailbreaker admired the aerodynamic curves for a moment before changing again himself and following Drift down the left lane.

Trailbreaker was relieved to finally reach the outskirts of the building. A small sign on the door marked it as the JAAT, whatever that was supposed to mean. Orion approached the front door and held down the intercom button. “I’ve got a few mechs you might want to meet here,” he announced vaguely.

Something above them fizzled and sparked. They all jumped, but Drift reacted the most strongly, clearly the one who was most on edge. Orion, on the other hand, recovered quickly.

“Should we let ourselves in, Glitch?”

“That’s probably for the best,” a muffled voice called from behind the door.

Orion turned back to them. “It seems the Senator isn’t around, but it doesn’t look like parliament has anything scheduled for tomorrow or the day after, so he might be back tomorrow.” He reached out to open the door while he explained. “I hate to drop all of these mechs on you, but unfortunately I can’t hang around. I already told Shockwave about these three, so can you just help them integrate into the complex for now?”

When Trailbreaker shuffled inside the doorway, he saw the mech Orion was speaking to. Someone who had had empurata performed on them? Given that was used as a punishment by the government, this Senator had to be an interesting fellow.

“Um, sure?” Glitch replied, sounding confused.

Orion nodded quickly then turned back to them. “As I said, I wish I could settle you in properly but I can’t afford to arouse even more suspicion. I’ll be back in a few days, hopefully with the Senator. Until then, he’d want you to enjoy his hospitality, so don’t feel like strangers,” he added as he backed out of the door.

With their guide until now disappearing into the distance, the three of them turned their attention back to their new acquaintance. “So uh, surprise?” Rodimus said in an attempt at humour.

The lack of response was a little disconcerting at first, but then the mech gestured expansively to show his confusion. If Trailbreaker had to guess, he’d say Glitch hadn’t been in his current body for very long at all. “Unfortunately you had to come at a time when the only guy who’s home is the one who breaks everything he touches, including the security systems and the door.”

He led them into the main room of the entranceway before quickly turning off down a side corridor. Trailbreaker felt the place was way too fancy, and was suddenly very conscious of how much dirt he was trekking inside.

“So, what do you all do?” Glitch asked, seeming to have gotten over their sudden appearance already. It seemed this wasn’t an unusual thing to him.

Rodimus shrugged. “Set things on fire, apparently. He does force fields, and he’s just a groupie,” he added, pointing them out respectively.

Drift cycled his optics and gave him a small shove. “No need to worry, I probably won’t be hanging around for very long,” he muttered.

Rodimus gave him a sad look. Glitch cleared is vocaliser at the awkward silence and sidled into the administration office. “This is where the dorm administrator usually is, if you have trouble getting in and out of your dorm in the future.” He reached up to the rack of key cards behind the desk and handed it to them. “This is for the guest room, which you’ll stay in until we get something more permanent sorted out.”

“Thanks,” Rodimus said, being the first of them to reach for it.

“The dorm floors are near the top of the school, and only this elevator can go to them. It needs a room key to be scanned before it can be used, for security’s sake. The fuelling hall and rec facilities are also up there…”

Glitch continued giving them the tour, but Trailbreaker was more surprised by Drift’s look of wonder as he observed everything around them. Trailbreaker felt out of place here, but he wondered if Drift had ever even seen how ‘the other half’ lived.

He listened to Glitch explain how the shared wash racks worked before he took them to the guest room that had three berths set up in it. “I’m just down the end of the hall if you need anything. I think I covered everything.” Glitch muttered to himself before leaving them to their own devices.

Trailbreaker was glad they had some time to get their processors around everything.


	15. Chapter 15

Trailbreaker sat at the desk in the guest quarters. The building they were in was far from the tallest in the immediate vicinity, but the night view over the lit city was beautiful. The only thing ruining it was his knowledge of how terrible the underside of it was.

Behind him, Drift and Rodimus had pushed two of the berths together and were now lying down in a tangle of limbs. He heard Rodimus murmur something quietly to Drift. It was nice to feel safe again, even if there was some tension that came from not really knowing the Enforcer or the senator they were relying on for everything.

“Trailbreaker,” Rodimus called, and waited for him to turn and face them before continuing. “You want some of this or what?” he asked, rubbing his hand over Drift’s aft.

Drift smacked him in the chest and huffed something that sounded like, “That’s _not_ what I said.”

Trailbreaker failed to pretend he wasn’t laughing as he stood and walked over to them. “Don’t worry Drift, I know how to translate from ‘Rodimus’ to standard by now,” he teased back. He lowered his weight onto the berth before gently cupping Drift’s face and leaving a soft kiss on his mouth. He was pleasantly surprised when the mech actually kissed him back.

Rodimus scoffed at Trailbreaker’s mild insult. “So in other words, yes.”

His confidence bolstered a little, Trailbreaker leaned back again and replied, “Yeah, but I also want some of this.” He leaned down to place a kiss on the red mech next.

Trailbreaker moved back when Rodimus pressed at the centre of his chest. He sat back on his knees and was surprised when Rodimus sat up as well. The lithe mech threw his arms around his neck and shoulders as he continued the kiss. Trailbreaker felt what was probably a part of his knee slide against his interfacing panels.

“Should we see if your spike wants to come out to play today?” Rodimus asked softly, as he leaned back slightly so one of his hands could make its way down between them and rub at his panels.

“I… I don’t know…” Trailbreaker murmured, not wanting to embarrass himself if he got too nervous.

Rodimus smiled easily and threaded the fingers of his other hand between Trailbreaker’s. “It’s ok if you change your mind halfway or something else happens, you know. Between us, I’m pretty sure Drift and I are creative enough to figure something else out.”

Trailbreaker smiled slightly but couldn’t deny the truth in that. Between them they probably knew more about interfacing than he ever wanted to. “Ok then, I guess we’ll see.”

His panels parted and his spike pressurised part way. Rodimus stared down at it as his fingers brushed against him lightly. Drift shifted beneath Rodimus and poked him in the side.

“What?”

“Well don’t just _stare_. Turn over and face me.”

Rodimus’ hand left him as he complied, and Trailbreaker did find that not being the centre of his attention did help a little. Rodimus’ chassis touched Drift’s and he parted his legs a little more to emphasise that his panelling wasn’t in the way of things any more. Trailbreaker leaned close and licked the edge of his valve entrance.

Rodimus gasped, seemingly with surprise, and his valve twitched against Trailbreaker’s mouth. Drift reached up and pressed Rodimus’ torso to his, leaving his aft up in the air for Trailbreaker’s benefit, it seemed. He took a hold of red hip components and ran his glossa over external sensors. Rodimus whined quietly as his spike released as well.

Trailbreaker paused to look up at what the other two were doing. He saw Drift was using his mouth on Rodimus’ neck cabling, causing the speedster’s spark casing to fold away with a shudder. A jolt of excitement ran through him at the erotic display, and his spike grew more erect. He didn’t quite remember putting up a barrier around the three of them, but he knew it had been in reaction to the light of the exposed spark.

“Drift, please,” Rodimus murmured, as he tried to press himself further against the mech beneath him. Trailbreaker held his hips in place, making him squirm and whine when he couldn’t rub his spike against Drift.

Drift glanced up at Trailbreaker with a wary expression before giving in to Rodimus’ demands. There was a bright flash as their sparks connected. Rodimus shuddered, and Trailbreaker saw a glisten of lubricant glide across his external valve components.

Trailbreaker slid a finger inside him, and found the valve took him easily already. He withdrew and tried two fingers instead. He stroked his valve lining, looking for major sensors. When Rodimus shuddered again and dropped his hips, Trailbreaker let him.

He withdrew his fingers and rubbed them against the end of his spike. He bit his lip at the sensation; it had been a long time since he’d been able to touch himself there. He took his hand away, worrying he might actually cause himself to overload already, and lined himself up with Rodimus’ valve.

Trailbreaker carefully pushed his way inside, the feeling of valve walls against his spike a foreign yet hardly unwelcome feeling. When he met resistance he paused and withdrew a little, before sliding forward again. Rodimus moaned softly when the head of his spike pushed against the sensor he had been stroking before.

Trailbreaker automatically moved forward and back again, and picked up a thrusting rhythm that seemed to please Rodimus as much as himself. Rodimus shuddered slightly beneath him and Drift gently stroked his twitching spoiler. “H-harder, Trailbreaker,” Rodimus murmured.

Trailbreaker was happy to oblige, but immediately became worried when he was forcing Rodimus’ body to slide back and forth with him. But he seemed to like this as well, and Trailbreaker realised it was because his spike was now rubbing against Drift’s middle as well.

Trailbreaker was finding it difficult to keep himself from overloading, between the sensations on his spike and the view in front of him. As the sensations built, it quickly became impossible to hold back. He felt the release of transfluid, and immediately felt embarrassed by how quickly it had all happened.

He shuffled back and carefully removed himself. Drift took the opportunity to turn the two of them on their sides, then realigned their chests so they could press their sparks closer. Trailbreaker rearranged his seating position so that one of his arms were over Drift, while his other hand was free to try and finish what he couldn’t with his spike.

Trailbreaker inserted his fingers again and reached for the spot he knew was good, his path lubricated by his own transfluid this time. Rodimus curled into Drift’s shoulder and moaned. Their sparks brightened as they approached overload.

Trailbreaker changed the angle of his hand so that his thumb could stroke over external sensors. Rodimus cried out and their sparks flashed bright. Trailbreaker shuddered as an aftershock passed through him as well.

They all vented heavily for a moment as their frame temperatures tried to settle back to normal. Trailbreaker gently withdrew his fingers, and Rodimus murmured something indistinguishable as he shuffled into a more comfortable position. Their chest plates slowly slid shut again.

The force field disappeared as Trailbreaker settled on the berth on Drift’s other side. Rodimus looked like he’d gone into recharge already, his helm resting against Drift’s chassis. When Trailbreaker rolled to lie on his front, Drift turned to look him in the optic.

“I’m a little jealous that you get to stay with him,” he confessed quietly. “But I know you’ll look after him. Just…”

Trailbreaker glanced up curiously, and waited for him to continue.

“I don’t know how long it’ll be until we meet again. A few weeks? A few years? But Rodimus is as bad as me when it comes to falling for others.” He paused again and glanced away. “I’m gonna ask that, if the two of you get that far, you don’t merge until the three of us can be together again.”

Trailbreaker’s visor brightened with surprise. “I understand,” he replied with a nod. “If things do get that far, we’ll wait until we can all be together,” he promised.

Drift nodded in return, and his posture relaxed again. “Thanks.”


End file.
